'My son didn’t commit suicide, he was killed by the state'

Azize Araç, mother of Murat Araç who is alleged to have committed suicide under custody, spoke about the battery marks on her son’s body and said, “My son was killed by the state.”

Azize Araç, mother of Murat Araç who is alleged to have committed suicide by jumping out of a police headquarters window while under custody in Antalya’s Gazipaşa district, said her son has been murdered.

Araç has since seen her son’s body. She said: “The first thing I did was to turn his head to the side. There was a large wound on the left side of his neck, and it was deep. My fingers could go into the wound. His right eye was black and swollen. Two of his teeth were broken, there was a bruise on his cheek and there was blood coming out of his ears. I kissed his hand, and told the policemen there that my son didn’t commit suicide, they killed him, this state killed him.”

“THE EXECUTIONER SYSTEM DOESN’T RESPECT OUR DEAD”

Araç stressed that she will fight for the rest of her life to bring the truth to light and spoke about what happened after she received the body of her son: “We asked for a hearse, they refused. We wanted to take him to the mosque for the washing, they didn’t let us. The municipality here also refused to provide a hearse or let us use the house of mourning. We even had to dig the grave ourselves.”

Azize Araç said they put up a tent for condolence visitors in their yard, but were called by the district police and told they would come and tear it down if the family doesn’t take it down themselves: “So we took down the tent. This executioner system doesn’t respect our dead or our pain. We will continue to experience this pain as long as we are not united.”