Çiğdem Nalbantoğlu, village mayor of the Gümüşsuyu quarter in Istanbul's district of Beyoğlu, became subject of an identity check of the police in front of a bar in Beyoğlu, a district popular for its nightlife, in the night of 11 August 2006. She criticized the police's conversational style during the control and protested when the police searched her bag by force after she had asked to see a search warrant before. Nalbantoğlu filed a complaint against police officers Işıl Tufan and Mahinur Akbulut on the grounds of being assaulted by being handcuffed and of being humiliated when she was taken to the Taksim First Aid Hospital.
Police defendants were relocated, one of them changed her identity
Both policewomen were appointed to different locations after the incident. Defendant Işıl Tufan was transferred to the Şırnak Chief of Police, Mahinur Akbulut is now working at the Diyarbakır Chief of Police, both cities are located in the southeast of Turkey.
The Beyoğlu 2nd Magistrate Criminal Court confirmed that defendant Mahinur Akbulut got married and changed her name in the meantime. She obtained a new identity card in the name of Ela Dokuz.
Although the court decided in the hearing on 9 April to bring the defendants in by force, Tufan and Dokuz were again absent in yesterday's (15 September) hearing. Only plaintiff Nalbantoğlu and her lawyer Erdal Doğan were present at the hearing. Police officers Tufan and Dokuz have not responded to the court's call for more than 5 months.
The court decided to take the defendants' statements by dint of a directive and to hear a witness of the complainant. The trial is to be continued on 14 January at 9.30 am.
Acquittal for Nalbantoğlu, trial for two policewomen
The Bakırköy High Criminal Court abolished the decision of the Beyoğlu Public Prosecutor's Office from 12 March 2008 to close the case against police officers Tufan and Akbulut. Now the Beyoğlu Office of the Attorney General is obliged to prepare the indictment.
In May 2008 the Beyoğlu Court of First Instance had acquitted Nalbantoğlu who was under allegations of insult and resistance to an identity check.
Doğan had previously told bianet: "Our prosecutors show a general resistance to action as far as arbitrary treatment of the people by the police and the exceeding of their authority are concerned. But if the suspect is a police officer or a soldier, he or she cannot be provided with reducing their crimes or immunity". (EÖ/VK)
