14-year-old Y.D. was on his way home in the Lice district of Amed (Diyarbakır) on the evening of 21 March when he was abducted by a group of police officers. He had previously been in Amed to take part in a large celebration to mark the Kurdish New Year, Newroz. He was picked up on the way to his parents' house, while the officers left his ten-year-old friend, who was accompanying the youth, alone. Y.D. was put into a police vehicle and taken to a remote area on the side of a village road, where he was severely maltreated. According to the descriptions, the police officers beat the boy with rifle butts, both in the face and on the head. He was also told to insult the Kurds and to say that he was a Turk. Because he did not do this, he was ordered to learn the Turkish national anthem by heart by the next morning. If he refused to do so, he would be "shot in the head".

After the ordeal, the child was thrown in a bound state into a marshy area not far from a stream that runs through the centre of Lice. His mouth was taped shut. A local resident who went to check on his herd of animals in a nearby barn heard the child's whimpering and immediately took him to hospital. Y.D.'s initial examination took place at Lice State Hospital, but because there was a risk that he might lose his right eye as a result of the severe abuse, he was referred to Dicle University Hospital in Amed.

The case was made public by the Mezopotamya news agency. In the course of the reporting and public protests, the public prosecutor's office in Lice opened an investigation and had the police officers involved detained five days after the assault. They are a police commissioner from the district police station in Lice and four ordinary police officers - three of whom had been sent to Amed from Ankara as task forces for the Newroz celebration. İsmail Akkuş, Emre Özcan and Gökhan Bay were remanded in custody by the district court, while police commissioner Aykut Oral and officer Hayrettin Çakmak were released.

Three police officers arrested on charges of torturing the Kurdish minor three months ago are back on duty. On Friday, the 1st Diyarbakır Grand Criminal Court upheld the appeal of the police officers on the grounds that there was no suspicion of physical torture. In addition to releasing them from pre-trial detention, the court also ordered the lifting of their suspensions, which had been imposed by the court of first instance.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Children’s Commission Co-Spokespersons Nuray Türkmen and Hüseyin Kaçmaz released a statement reacting to the release of the police officers who left a 14-year-old to die because he attended a Newroz celebration.

According to the HDP, the release of the police officers means awarding them with impunity, clearing the way for torturers and providing judicial protection for the perpetrators, which means “we stand behind you”.

“The act of the police officers who subjected a Kurdish child to torture constitutes a crime of torture. The impunity granted to those responsible is a failure of effective prosecution and goes against both domestic and international law. It is a demonstration of the fact that the laws are practiced according to persons, the geography and political motives, and of a dual judicial system. It is unacceptable to grant impunity to the perpetrators through an unlawfulness that hurts the public conscience. It is vital to make decisions for necessary sanctions as a result of an effective trial, and not to leave torturers without penalty,” said the HDP statement on Friday.

HDP vowed that they would not give up on their struggle against the years-long policy of impunity for law enforcement officers and groups that commit crimes in the Kurdish geography with state support and against attempts at drawing a veil over torture and deaths.