Police officer denounces superiors for attempt to hit Gezi Park protester

A policeman has given testimony saying his superiors attempted to beat a university student in the trunk of a car during the Gezi Park protests of 2013 in Turkey's northwestern province of Eski?ehir.

Mevlüt Saldo?an, who testified in the case of Tevfik Caner Ertay, a protestor who was allegedly beaten and held in the trunk of a car during the Gezi Park protests, denounced his three superiors for hitting Ertay.

Saldo?an denounced then-Provincial Police Department Forces deputy head Mustafa Aygün, Riot Police Branch head Halil K?salar and Intelligence Branch head Mustafa Ar?k, for attempting to beat Ertay.

"During the beating attempt, I told my three superiors something like, 'He is already wounded, my superiors, why are you dealing with him?' The man [Ertay] was mumbling to himself while crying in the back of the car," said Saldo?an.

While the three heads rejected the claims of beating Ertay, K?salar and Ar?k admitted the car had stopped and they had looked at Ertay, who was being held in the car's trunk. Aygün said Ertay had already been beaten before he was put in the car.

On Jan. 21, Saldo?an was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison by the Kayseri 3rd High Criminal Court on charges of injuring and causing the death of Ali ?smail Korkmaz, a university student who was beaten to death during the Gezi protests in Eski?ehir.

While Saldo?an's lawyer appealed the court's decision, he could be granted probation as early as March 2019, as he has already been under arrest for 18 months.

Ertay, a university student in Eski?ehir, claimed he had been beaten by police officers with iron sticks and locked in the trunk of a car. He said the car had stopped at some point and a group of policemen had beaten...