Policeman beat eight year old boy up in Mersin

MERSIN | 18-09-2013 | A riot policeman beat an eight year old child up after the boy refused his request to “hit his friend”.

Eight year old D.Ö. was playing in front of the police station in the Şevket Sümer neighborhood of southern province of Mersin. A riot policeman asked the boy to hit another policeman standing near him. The boy swore at the policeman and run away from the scene when the policeman slapped him in the face. Running after the boy for some time, the policeman chased the boy and beat him up until he fainted. The boy came to himself after they poured water on his body and face at the police station for some time.

D.Ö. who was later sent to his house fell sick and started to vomit within the next several hours. His family took him to hospital where they learned that their son had been bruised on his ribs and some other parts of his body and got a blister on the kidney.

Speaking to Cumhuriyet daily about the incident, D.Ö. said that; “The policeman clutched my throat, hit my body again and again, and hit my head on the police car. Some other policemen came later, they took me to the police station, took my clothes off, poured water on my body and face. They later put my clothes on and sent me home. They had also beaten me two times before this incident”.

The boy’s mother Kamile told the followings as to what happened that day; “I went to the police station after hearing about the incident from my neighbors. A policeman there said me ‘What a bad child you have raised. He swore at me and I beat him’. Then I opened a door and saw that they had undressed my son and were pouring water on him. Policemen told me to go home, saying that they would send him five minutes later. Then he came home soon after I arrived. He had blanched. I rushed him to hospital when he started to vomit. They were doing the same thing to some other children too”.

Father Abdülkadir said they would file a criminal complaint against the police officer that beat his son up. He said they demanded the prosecutor examine the footage of the security cameras at the scene. (ANF)