Police Inflict Terror Night on Citizens
23 year old university student Ali Can Sünnetçioğlu was arrested and taken into custody during the anti-government protests in Istanbul on the 6th of July. Sünnetçioğlu has explained the inhumane treatment he experienced in custody and in jail:
“We took shelter in the Turkish Communist Party’s building while trying to escape from a police attack. The police broke the door down and attacked everyone, they beat us for several minutes. As they were beating us they poured a chemical pepper spray solution from the anti-riot vehicles on our heads.
We saw a Japanese tourist being taken in by the police at the same time as us. One of the police said to him, “What are you doing here, has Erdoğan cut down the trees in Japan too?”
“As they took us in to the holding cells, the police completely stripped us, then they searched us, it was humiliating. The holding cells were underground and badly-ventilated; hundreds of people had been detained and we could hardly breathe. They gave us water just twice a day with out breakfast and dinner. If we missed one of these meals they wouldn’t give us water. There were 14 of us in a cell of about 10 square metres. I learned there that torture doesn’t have to be physical.”