CENTRAL NEWS
On April 22, Kurdish asylum seeker Resul Ozdemir, who was being detained in a prison in Sweden, was chained, tortured and placed on a private plane to Turkey even with the given coronavirus travel ban.
The 22-year-old Kurdish youth was taken out of his cell where he had been held for 5 months by Swedish police, being told that he would be taken to the High Court of Immigration. The police forced Ozdemir into a vehicle by chaining his hands and feet and putting a sack on his head. After taking him to the airport, the police forced Ozdemir onto a private plane rented by the Swedish state, using force and violence.
Resul Ozdemir applied to seek political asylum in Sweden after being injured during a military curfew imposed by the terrorist Turkish state in Cizre in 2015-2016. After being forcefully abducted in Turkey, Resul was placed in Silivri Type-F Closed Prison Number 9.
Meeting with him, Resul Ozdemir’s lawyer, Naim Akbulak, voiced that the young person had been tortured physically and subjected to psychological pressure in the Immigration Centre in Sweden, where he had been held for 4 months. He was prevented from sleeping, being awoken by the security personnel every hour. The lawyer recorded that the staff in the prison kept telling Resul, “You’re a goner.”
The lawyer emphasised, “After being removed from the Migration Center, his hands and feet were handcuffed at the door, he was thrown in the car and brought to the airport. Swedish police prevented my client from telling his family and lawyer.
When they try to push my client on to the plane, he resists this. Although he tries to resist, his hands and feet are handcuffed and he is thrown on the plane like a bag. After Resul is thrown on the plane, this time he is tied around the neck to the seat of the plane and beaten here. He was constantly being insulted. ”
The lawyer explained that Ozdemir was unable to move his neck till he reached Turkey. “He told us that the cops hit the ribcage on his stomach and kicked his feet,” Naim stated.
“He stated that there were two policemen, one woman and one man speaking Swedish, as well as people speaking English, that Resul believed were members of the MİT. Swedish Security Police Säpo handed Özdemir to another country’s intelligence service while he was still in Swedish territory, in violation of Swedish law and international agreements.”
Abdullah Deveci, Resul’s lawyer in Sweden, met with Lawyer Naim Akbulak and explained the torture of Özdemir in a statement as follows:
“Özdemir was immediately taken to an MİT centre. He was subjected to heavy tortures for 6 hours. Torture began by hitting his throat and face with batons. He was drowned with water. Electric currents were released to the back, head, arms and chest. Although he lost his speech and fainted, MIT agents continued to torture ”
After his interrogation at MIT, Akbulak said that Özdemir was taken to the Anti-Terrorism Branch, where the police continued to insult and torture, but there was no electric torture.
Sweden’s true face
During the meeting, it was said that Özdemir had torture marks on his body, that when he was brought to prison, Özdemir had told prison personnel that this was not recorded officially. Ozdemir also asked if he was infected with the Coronavirus.
Deveciler also commented on the photos served by the Turkish media revealing Özdemir’s tortured body in all its nakedness: “The picture of the Kurdish youth, who was handcuffed at the age of 22 between the two Turkish flags, is the picture of Sweden’s embarrassing asylum policy”.
Deveciler emphasised that while Sweden is trying to paint a humanist, just photo, it has continuously fed the people exercising their human rights to the jaws of anti-democratic regimes such as Turkey and Afghanistan. He noted that he would take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.
40 organisations took action to stop deportation
The Kurdish Democratic Society Center immediately launched a nationwide campaign to stop the deportation of Resul Ozdemir as soon as he was arrested. 40 associations and organizations wrote a letter to the Swedish Minister of Justice and Immigration and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, demanding the decision to deport Özdemir’s be lifted and he be granted asylum.
His family and other Kurdish people also demonstrated in Karstad city for the release of Resul Özdemir.
