The Ankara 6th Criminal Court of Peace has ordered the removal of news and tweets regarding torture allegations against police officer Abdulkadir Türkyılmaz, who works at the counterterrorism branch of the Ankara Police Department, the Bold Medya news website reported on Saturday.
The ruling, which included a total of 2,071 URLs in 102 pages, also removed social media posts featuring a photo of Türkyılmaz and allegations of his involvement in the torture of several individuals.
The decision was based on the potential for certain statements in the posts to fall under the category of defamation and damage Türkyılmaz’s reputation.
In June, the prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into Türkyılmaz, who denied the torture allegations in his testimony.
Türkyılmaz admitted to “mistreating” some soldiers, including high-ranking commanders, in “the heat of the moment” following a coup attempt in 2016, but denied any involvement in the torture of suspects at the counterterrorism branch.
After an abortive putsch in 2016, ill-treatment and torture became widespread and systematic in Turkish prisons and detention centers. Lack of condemnation from higher officials and a readiness to cover up allegations rather than investigate them have resulted in widespread impunity for the security forces.
An annual report by Amnesty International (AI) on the state of human rights in the world has revealed that serious and credible allegations of torture and other ill-treatment were made in Turkey last year.
According to a report drafted by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu, there were 2,694 deaths and 3,145 incidents of torture or maltreatment in Turkey in 2021, with 925 of them taking place in prisons.
In its 2021 human rights report on Turkey, the US Department of State listed credible reports of arbitrary killings, suspicious deaths of persons in custody, forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and the continued detention of tens of thousands of persons for purported ties to “terrorist” groups or peaceful legitimate speech as being among the significant human rights issues in the country.