Lip reading report creates controversy
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 09, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - An Istanbul court that assigned a lip-reading expert to assess a video recording of Engin Çeber’s final hours in jail has raised more controversy with the report’s support for statements by one of the leading defendants.
Çeber was arrested Sept. 28, 2008, for protesting police brutality in the case of Ferhat Gerçek, 19, who was shot by police in 2007 while selling a leftist journal and was subsequently left paralyzed. Çeber was held for one night in a police station, charged with resisting arrest and then put in Istanbul’s Metris Prison pending trial.
Çeber died Oct. 10 at the age of 29 after being hospitalized in a coma. An official medical report said Çeber sustained "severe blows" that caused fatal brain hemorrhaging.
His family filed a complaint, saying that Çeber was killed as a result of violence inflicted by guards while he was in prison. In April, the court was shown a portion of eight DVD and 17 VCD recordings from the police station and prison.
The footage showed Çeber, Özgür Karakaya, Cihan Gün and Aysu Baykal resisting officers by remaining seated while their fingerprints were being taken. They also resisted having their photos taken. In the video, Gün says he had been mistreated and points to his torn jacket. The rest of the footage was not available because the CD was defective.
Footage from Metris Prison showed Çeber being taken to a hospital on a stretcher on Oct. 7 at 9 a.m.
Two inmates who said they had seen Çeber being tortured said they did not want to testify. "My detention is continuing. I have worries. I am still talking to prison authorities and other inmates," said Aşkiner Koçak, one of the witnesses. The other witness, Hacı Koçak, has refused to testify on similar grounds.
A total of 60 officials are standing trial in this case, and their lawyers sought their immediate release, saying the video footage showed no mistreatment and thus there was no evidence. The court, however, said the accused should remain in custody and asked the experts to analyze the footage within a month. The hearing was set to reconvene June 8.
Analysis
The deputy warden of Metris Prison, Fuat Karaosmanoğlu, was accused by some witnesses of saying, "This is how we will punish those who don’t get up during roll call," after leaving the room where Çeber was being held. Karaosmanoğlu, who faces life in prison if found guilty, denied the claims, asking the court to appoint a lip-reading expert to analyze the footage.
The expert’s report said while definitive decryption was impossible due to low quality of the footage, in his opinion, what the defendant appeared to be saying did not correspond exactly with witness testimonies. The expert also said the general attitude and body language of the deputy warden did not show an aggressive or angry stance.
Çeber died Oct. 10 at the age of 29 after being hospitalized in a coma. An official medical report said Çeber sustained "severe blows" that caused fatal brain hemorrhaging.
His family filed a complaint, saying that Çeber was killed as a result of violence inflicted by guards while he was in prison. In April, the court was shown a portion of eight DVD and 17 VCD recordings from the police station and prison.
The footage showed Çeber, Özgür Karakaya, Cihan Gün and Aysu Baykal resisting officers by remaining seated while their fingerprints were being taken. They also resisted having their photos taken. In the video, Gün says he had been mistreated and points to his torn jacket. The rest of the footage was not available because the CD was defective.
Footage from Metris Prison showed Çeber being taken to a hospital on a stretcher on Oct. 7 at 9 a.m.
Two inmates who said they had seen Çeber being tortured said they did not want to testify. "My detention is continuing. I have worries. I am still talking to prison authorities and other inmates," said Aşkiner Koçak, one of the witnesses. The other witness, Hacı Koçak, has refused to testify on similar grounds.
A total of 60 officials are standing trial in this case, and their lawyers sought their immediate release, saying the video footage showed no mistreatment and thus there was no evidence. The court, however, said the accused should remain in custody and asked the experts to analyze the footage within a month. The hearing was set to reconvene June 8.
Analysis
The deputy warden of Metris Prison, Fuat Karaosmanoğlu, was accused by some witnesses of saying, "This is how we will punish those who don’t get up during roll call," after leaving the room where Çeber was being held. Karaosmanoğlu, who faces life in prison if found guilty, denied the claims, asking the court to appoint a lip-reading expert to analyze the footage.
The expert’s report said while definitive decryption was impossible due to low quality of the footage, in his opinion, what the defendant appeared to be saying did not correspond exactly with witness testimonies. The expert also said the general attitude and body language of the deputy warden did not show an aggressive or angry stance.