No Impunity . . . At Least Not in Ceber's Case

From TDZ:

Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin apologized yesterday for the recent death of an activist allegedly at the hands of police and prison guards and announced that 19 members of the security staff believed to have been responsible for the tragedy have been suspended, a statement to which human rights groups in Turkey responded positively.

Şahin announced yesterday that 19 individuals who may have been responsible for Engin Ceber’s death have been suspended. “In the first stage, 19 employees involved in this have been suspended from duty,” he announced in televised remarks.

Ceber, an inmate at İstanbul’s Metris Prison, died last week after allegedly being abused and tortured, initially at the hands of police officers who interrogated him and later by prison security personnel when he was in jail. Ceber was reportedly taken into custody on Sept. 28 along with three friends in İstanbul for selling a leftist magazine. They were later convicted and sent to Metris Prison. The four inmates were allegedly subjected to mistreatment and torture by policemen and prison guards. Ceber was taken to the hospital last week and pronounced dead on arrival after suffering from a brain hemorrhage as a result of head trauma. A post mortem report has suggested that severe bruises were detected on different parts of his body, strengthening claims that the activist was subjected to torture.