Of the 51 people who were detained on 18 May in the neighborhood of Dergili (Dêrto) in Halfeti, Urfa, 28 appeared in court. Of them, Celal Ercan, Celal Yıldırım, Cindi Zincirkıran, Mehmet Alakuş, Zeki Alakuş, Besravi Atmaca, Fahrettin Alakuş, Fatma Alakuş, Mustafa Kahraman, Ömer Gül, Vakas Kılıç, GazelayAlakuş ve Mehmet Salih Yıldız were remanded in custody accused of “membership of an illegal organisation”. 

Abdullah Polat, Mahmut Pehlivan, Tacettin Gul, Feyzullah Gul, Emin Zincirkiran, Halil Zincirkiran, Mehmet Yildirim, Ugur Yildirim, Mustafa Yildirim, Abdullah Yildirim, Mehmet Korkmaz, M. Sait Ciftci, Kader Ciftci and Guler Alakus were freed by order of the prosecutor.

Among those remanded in custody is Celal Ercan who had difficulty in earring after the torture he suffered in custody. His defence lawyer said that Ercan was illiterate and did not recognised the statement taken by the CMK based lawyer.

Celal Yildirim, who had been in custody for 12 days, also said he did not recognise the statement taken under torture while in custody. His lawyer confirmed that statement were taken after psychological and physical violence. 

Cindi Zincirkiran also rejected the statements given while in custody. His lawyer said that the statements were extorted after torture. 

Lawyers also recalled that some of their clients are under 18 and were threatened and statements were forcibly taken from them. 

One of the defendants, Fatma Alakus stated that she had much to tell about what was done, but could not speak because she was ashamed . “This is not justice. - she said - I don't accept charges against me. The statement I gave was given under torture, I do not accept it.”

Gazaley Alakus said: “They tortured me in safety. They hit me with a stick and tortured me with electricity. They did much more but I can’t explain it here.”

Zeki Alakus, who said that he too was under torture while custody, said that he did not accept his statement.

Background

A deputy chief of Turkish Special Operations Police was killed and two policemen wounded in a clash in the neighborhood of Dergili (Derto) in Urfa’s Halfeti district on 18 May.

In the wake of the fighting, a large scale military operation was started in the region and soldiers set a house on fire. All members of two families have been taken into custody.

Turkish forces banned entry into and exit from the neighborhood and carried out a raid on the house of neighborhood resident Fahri Alakuş. The fire opened by Turkish soldiers and police injured the women in the house. While hand grenades were thrown into the house, two people inside lost their lives.

After the recovery of the corpses from the house, soldiers set the entire house on fire. According to information provided by local sources in the region, Turkish forces also raided the home of Zeki Alakuş who lives in the same neighborhood, and took all the family members into custody, including children. 

According to the report released by the Human Rights Association of the Antep Bar investigating the incident at the scene, the detainees including women were heavily beaten, insulted, given an electric shock and forced to sign false testimonies.