Urfa Bar Association published a report on allegations of torture against detainees after what happened in Halfeti on May 18.

President Abdullah Öncel pointed out that the report in the TEM (Anti-terror) Branch was compiled at a time when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his ‘Judicial reform’.

Öncel said: “At a time when the independence of the judiciary has been trampled, the attitude of the judges and prosecutors against torture in Urfa is proof that the independence of the judiciary is not such.”

After the clashes in Halfeti, 51 people were detained in Bozova and Halfeti districts and subjected to severe torture and inhuman treatment.

The report included torture cases in Urfa Police Department and claimed: “The existence of a systematic torture pattern in our city has been evaluated from 2015 until today.”

The report stated that the pattern of torture began to be shown from 22 July 2015 after the killing of two policemen in Ceylanpınar. Since then detainees have been systematically subjected to torture.