Gökhan Biçici was detained on 16 June after being battered and dragged on the floor by the police. And after he was released, he told us the police violence he experienced
Gökhan Biçici, a member of broadcasting board in Emek Dünyası Net and the program editor of Emek Dünyası on İmc TV, went to Şişli to watch the protests against police intervention in Gezi Park on Sunday, 16 June 2013. However, he was beaten by the police, dragged on the floor and then he was detained there. After being under arrest for 2 days, he was released.
Although he emphasized that he was a journalist, he was beaten and detained. Biçici was under arrest in İstanbul Police Headquarters for 2 days. He was relased after the procedure in İstanbul Police Headquarters and the prosecutor’s interrogation in Çağlayan Courthouse.
After he was released, Gökhan Biçici told us his experience. He stated that his press card was ripped from his neck and thrown away by the police commander, his gas mask was broken, his anti-tear gas solution was spilled, and he was dragged by the police for 2 hours without any legal procedure.
Biçici added that he was beside the police during the intervention, and he took a photo with his mobile phone. At that moment a police commander took his mobile phone, and when the police wanted to remove the photos, he protested against this. Biçici told what happened afterwards as follows: I told them, ‘If I am under arrest, you can take my mobile phone, but if I’m not, you don’t have any rights to do this.’ Thereupon, they started to hit me. I heard one of them said ‘Take him to an apartment and do away with him.’ Then I started to shout that I was a journalist. Then they swooped on me and started to beat. Then they began to drag me on the floor while beating at the same time. People around were protesting against this. The police dragged me on the floor again on Ergenekon Street till the front of Beşler Sucuk shop. Then they handcuffed me. There was a cut on my eyebrow and it was bleeding. At that moment Aris Nalcı, the news director of İmc TV, came there. The police didn’t let him come up to me, either. When Aris Nalcı left there to find some medical dressing materials, they took me away from there immediately. While leaving, they told me that in fact they wanted to kill me, but it was not the right place to do this. They took me to the police bus near Ramada Hotel. After taking me into the bus, one riot squad officer punched me and left there. There were 10 more people on the bus apart from me. We waited handcuffed (plastic handcuffs) on the bus for a long time. There is still loss of feeling in my fingers due to these plastic handcuffs.
‘İSTANBUL GOVERNOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS.’
Biçici stated that İstanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu was responsible for his being detained despite his press card – due to his words on 11 June: ‘There are some people pretending as a media member; we will do what is needed about this.’ And he added, ‘If the governor says this, the manager rips the press card and the police torture people.’ Biçici said that the police were classifying journalists according to the press cards. By reminding that the Prime Minister didn’t consider the journalists without yellow press cards as not real journalists, Biçici stated that the reason for why the riot squad commander ripped the press card was due to this classification.
ESPECIALLY WOMEN WERE TORTURED SYSTEMATICALLY
Biçici told that all the people under arrest were tortured systematically while they were being detained. And he emphasized that especially women were exposed to verbal sexual abuse and violence.
You can watch the video in which Gökhan Biçici told his experience on İmc TV here:
Gazeteci Gökhan Biçici polis şiddetini anlattı and imctv
19 June 2013
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