Pozantý children still face repression
Pozantý children still face repression
Hardly a day passes without the mistreatment of Kurdish children by the ruling AK Party government. Turkish High Criminal Courts have tried 8,828 children and convicted 3,777 of them in the last seven years. Most of the tried and convicted children are accused of having links to terror and terrorist actions.
The most recent example of this bitter situation has been experienced in Mersin where 1st Juvenile Court sentenced two Pozantý victim children to a total of 34 years in prison.
The two minors, 17 year-old Hasan Þeker and 16 year-old Ahmet Budak, who have already been jailed since February 2012 were found guilty of seven different crimes including alleged membership to an illegal organization, spreading propaganda for an illegal organization and opposing the law on meetings and demonstrations.
Accused Hasan Þeker had earlier been jailed for six months and Ahmet Budak for five months before they were sent to prison last February.
The final trial of the case against two children was held at Mersin 1st Juvenile Court which sentenced Budak to 10 years and Þeker to 24 years in prison, thus leading to strong reactions by families who were attacked by police for asking to enter the court hall after the announcement of the courts decison.
Turkish authorities have detained at least 30 Pozantý victim children and sent 15 among them once again to prison in the last nine months. Turkish courts, mainly those in the southern provinces of Mersin and Adana, both of which have remarkable Kurdish population, are often brought to agenda for their hostile approach towards Kurds.
The sexual abuse and torture against children in Pozantý Prison first came out when seven children aged between 13-17 years, jailed for taking part in political demonstrations and throwing stones at the police, spoke of the sexual and physical abuses, rape and ill-treatment in handwritten notes they sent to the Mersin Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) in April 2011. The allegations were later confirmed by the interviewed jailed children who were afterwards sent to the Sincan Prison in Ankara as authorities failed to offer another solution to the physical and psychological problem the children had suffered from.
Most of the Pozantý victims who have been released since last year have once again been arrested and sent to prison on the grounds of the same terror-linked accusations that Turkish court mainly put forward in cases against Kurdish children and people.
The most recent example of this bitter situation has been experienced in Mersin where 1st Juvenile Court sentenced two Pozantý victim children to a total of 34 years in prison.
The two minors, 17 year-old Hasan Þeker and 16 year-old Ahmet Budak, who have already been jailed since February 2012 were found guilty of seven different crimes including alleged membership to an illegal organization, spreading propaganda for an illegal organization and opposing the law on meetings and demonstrations.
Accused Hasan Þeker had earlier been jailed for six months and Ahmet Budak for five months before they were sent to prison last February.
The final trial of the case against two children was held at Mersin 1st Juvenile Court which sentenced Budak to 10 years and Þeker to 24 years in prison, thus leading to strong reactions by families who were attacked by police for asking to enter the court hall after the announcement of the courts decison.
Turkish authorities have detained at least 30 Pozantý victim children and sent 15 among them once again to prison in the last nine months. Turkish courts, mainly those in the southern provinces of Mersin and Adana, both of which have remarkable Kurdish population, are often brought to agenda for their hostile approach towards Kurds.
The sexual abuse and torture against children in Pozantý Prison first came out when seven children aged between 13-17 years, jailed for taking part in political demonstrations and throwing stones at the police, spoke of the sexual and physical abuses, rape and ill-treatment in handwritten notes they sent to the Mersin Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) in April 2011. The allegations were later confirmed by the interviewed jailed children who were afterwards sent to the Sincan Prison in Ankara as authorities failed to offer another solution to the physical and psychological problem the children had suffered from.
Most of the Pozantý victims who have been released since last year have once again been arrested and sent to prison on the grounds of the same terror-linked accusations that Turkish court mainly put forward in cases against Kurdish children and people.
