JINHA

SÊRT – In ongoing developments in the case of the two teenage girls evidently kidnapped and sexually abused by police officers in the Northern Kurdish province of Siirt, in Turkey, the local police department claimed in a written statement on Turkey that the girls "consented" to come to the home of the two police officers. Local lawyers say documents contradict this claim.

According to lawyer Servet Danış, who works on the children's and women's rights committee of the local bar association, the documents on the case that he has been able to access show clear evidence that the two adult male police officers strongly pressured the girls to come with them. According to the documents, one of the girls texted her younger sister saying, "come get me." This was how the event was first reported to authorities, when the younger sister went to the police.

"This is not something that someone who wasn't forcibly taken would say," said Zana Aksu, chair of the Human Rights Association's Siirt branch.

Local women's groups and NGOs have accused the state of covering up the nature of the sexual assault that took place. Most recently, the state has said it will file charges of "sexual restriction of an individual's freedom" against the two police officers, but the Police Department has claimed in a statement that "there was no sexual assault" and that the girls consented.

Zana says that the abduction points to the dangers of the increased powers that Turkey's Internal Security Law has given to police in the country. It is also worrying that the case file is being kept confidential, which Zana says is unusual for this type of case.

(şö/fk/cm)