Torture Statistics Down, But Culture Remains
While statistics regarding torture while in detention shows a decrease, pre-detention torture continues, that is, mistreatment while not “officially “detained. Yesterday passersby saw a wounded man lying in front of the wall of the Taksim Teaching and Research Hospital in Istanbul. Most walked on, but one good Samaritan woke the man and discovered that he was Abdoullah Mouhammed Jamal, an African immigrant who had been in Turkey just over a year. While making a phone call in a public booth, he explained, police approached him and asked for his passport. He told them he didn’t have one, but had a residence permit, which unfortunately had expired two months ago. He suggested they bring him to the Kumkapi Foreigners’ Guesthouse to ask about his status. Instead, he said, the police beat him with a hammer and left him badly wounded on his head and body. “Maybe because I’m a Muslim the police let me go without killing me,” Jamal suggested.
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