MARDİN - Drawing attention to the state intervention to the funeral ceremony of Garibe Gezer, lawyer Ruşen Bingül Binbaş said: "Systematic torture, discrimination, inhumane treatments and isolation reflected to the funeral ceremony of Garibe Gezer."

 

The body of Garibe Gezer who died in Kandıra No 1 Type F Closed Prison after informing his family and lawyers about the torture and sexual violence she was subjected to was brought to Mardin from İstanbul on December 10. While the police insulted the people who recieved her body from the morgue in İstanbul, the the discriminatory and aggressive attitude towards the dead body of Gezer continued in Mardin. The police did not allow Gezer's body to be transferred to Dargeçit with the funeral vehicle belonging to the Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, which is run by a trustee. While the family was told to take the body to Dargeçit with their own means, the body was kept waiting at the trailer of the cargo vehicle at the airport about 2 hours.

 

A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT WILL BE FILED

 

While many funerals in the region were subjected to similar treatment before Garibe's funeral, the treatment brought the attitude of the trustees and the government to the funerals of the Kurds to the agenda. Mardin Bar Association Women's Rights Center and Human Rights Center, in their report on the events, stated that the police and the municipality administration committed a hate crime and discrimination crime and announced that they would file a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office.

 

Ruşen Bingül Binbaş, Member of the Board of Directors of the Mardin Bar Association, and Seher Acay, Head of the Mardin Bar Association Women's Rights Center, who were at the airport on the day Gezer's body arrived at the airport, evaluated the attitude towards the dead body of Gezer.

 

BİNBAŞ: ISOLATION REFLECTED TO THE FUNERAL

 

Stating that the attitude of the police to the dead body of Gezer hurt a lot of people deeply, Binbaş said: "The ill-treatment against Gezer in prison continued at the airport. Her dead body was subjected to the same ill-treatment. Systematic torture, discrimination, inhumane treatments and isolation reflected to the funeral ceremony of Garibe Gezer". Adding that the fact that her casket was kept waiting in a trailer of a truck was inhumane, Binbaş said: ""It was actually the continuation of the discrimination policy that Garibe had lived through."

 

Noting that under normal circumstances, the body should be transported by a public funeral vehicle, Binbaş said, “Garibe's body was somehow found to be dangerous and therefore the funeral vehicle sent by the municipality was sent back on the grounds that it is "inconvenient to transport". The corpse was kept outside for hours. The family was kept waiting at the airport in cold weather. How was her body so dangerous that they sent back the funeral vehicle? It was a clear violation of basic human rights and discrimination against a Kurdish political prisoner. It was a shame for Turkey."

 

 

 

MA / Ahmet Kanbal