Doctor fined over inaccurate report on tortured woman in Turkey's west

İZMİR

DHA photo

Turkey’s union of doctors has fined a doctor because of his inaccurate report on a woman who was tortured in a police station in the Aegean province of İzmir in 2011, Doğan News Agency reported on July 5.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the top union of doctors in Turkey, fined the doctor, identified as A.K., who purportedly prepared a report without the necessary medical examination of Fevziye Cengiz, who was beaten and tortured at a police station in İzmir’s Karabağlar district after her detention July 2011.

A.K. was fined by the TTB for “not paying the required attention and violating rules on duty.” 

Cengiz’s attorney, Hanife Yıldırım, filed a case against A.K. and the two police officers identified as Ş.Ü. and C.İ. who, at the time of Cengiz’s detention, were at the police station.

A.K. was on duty at the Atatürk Education and Research Hospital’s emergency service where Cengiz was taken for medical examination after she was beaten.

The indictment, prepared by the Chief Public Prosecutor Murat Veysel Sular, said A.K. prepared Cengiz’s report, which only described red ecchymoses on her right arm and face, with a poorly done medical examination. According to the indictment, it was found after Cengiz’s medical examination at the İzmir directorate of the Forensic Medical Institution that she had elaborate bruising on her body. 

Yıldırım filed a complaint at the İzmir Medical Chamber, a sub-unit of the TTB, against A.K. for not specifying Cengiz’s “torture” on his report. The İzmir Medical Chamber then launched an investigation against A.K. over “not paying necessary attention to medical examination and inadequate reporting in criminal cases.”  

The İzmir Medical Chamber issued a warning against A.K., but Yıldırım found the warning insufficient punishment. Yıldırım then applied to the TTB High Honor Council, demanding A.K. be suspended for up to six months for “abuse of professional knowledge and experience for purposes that violate the honor of mankind, torturing or treatment like torturing, and false reporting on evidences of torture.” 

The TTB revoked the İzmir Medical Chamber’s “warning” decision and fined A.K. 1,066 Turkish Liras.

A.K. had previously been acquitted following a court hearing in the İzmir 6th Court of Serious Crimes; however, Aysun Mutlu, a female member of the bench at the time, added annotation to a decision previously made the defendant police officers and A.K. serve from six months to two years in prison.