Turkey: Police officers involved in torturing Kurdish teenager arrested

Five police officers allegedly involved in illegally detaining and torturing a 14-year-old Kurdish boy and leaving him to die in Turkey's southeastern city of Lice have been arrested, the chair of a bar association said on Sunday.

Nahit Eren, the chair of the bar association in the Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakir, said in a tweet:

"In the context of the criminal investigation launched against five police officers who are accused of torturing 14-year-old Y.D. in Lice, two police officers have been taken into custody in Lice, and three others in Ankara as they have taken a leave of absence from duty. We continue to monitor the investigation process."

A criminal investigation was launched into the incident after Diyarbakir Bar Association filed charges against the police on 22 March.

Y.D. was allegedly stopped by the police on his way home on 21 March for no apparent reason, beaten and tortured in a remote area. The officers forced him to say out loud that he was a "Turk" and to insult Kurds, and when he refused they beat him up with gun butts. They then tied him up, gagged him, and left him in a swamp on the riverbank. The child was spotted by a villager during the night and taken to a hospital.

He was later summoned by officials for his statement, and identified three police officers from photos as the ones who tortured him, according to a report by Mezopotamya News Agency (MA). He was not permitted legal counsel in the identification process, MA said.