Man feigned death to escape police brutality in Turkey

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

A man in Istanbul has released security camera footage showing he was violently beaten by police officers, saying that he pretended to be dead because he was scared of being actually killed.

The man, identified as Kenan Eroğlu, was reportedly travelling with three friends at around 11:30 p.m. in Istanbul’s Bayrampaşa district on Feb. 15 when traffic police warned them to stop their car. The police fired warning shots before Eroğlu’s friend stopped the car 200 meters away. When they left the car, police officers reportedly came and swore at them. After his friends escaped out of fear, a quarrel erupted and police officers and the driver of a tow truck began to beat him.

“I asked to police to take us to a police station if we did something wrong. [One of them] punched me after saying ‘do you have a private driver?’ Then the tow truck’s driver got me on the ground. I tried to protect myself. They started violently beating me,” Eroğlu said.

“Both police officers and the other driver kicked me while I was on the ground. I was scared because it was a desolated area. They hit me on the face with a wire fence. I fainted. When I woke up, the driver was searching my pockets. There was a gun in the police officer’s hand. I was afraid they would kill me. They sprayed tear gas on me. I pretended to be dead and then they left me,” he added.

“The incident lasted around fifteen minutes,” Eroğlu said, adding that he did not remember the rest after paramedics arrived.

Doctors gave an eight-day incapacity report to him and there was a blood clot in his brain as well as bruises on his body, Eroğlu said, denouncing the officers and the driver.

The Istanbul Police Department said the incident had been carefully followed and official action was taken against the officers as part of the investigation.