Police torture against music group reported in Turkey

Two members of the music group, Grup Yorum, which is known for its leftist political tendencies, were detained and allegedly subjected to police violence, with police officers breaking the violinist’s arm and rupturing the lead singer’s eardrum, reports claim. 

The band’s lead singer Selma Altın and violinist Ezgi Dilan Balcı were subjected to torture by police after they were detained during incidents that broke out while the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) member İbrahim Çuhadar’s corpse was being removed from the Forensic Medicine Institution. Çuhadar was killed in a bombing at a police station in Istanbul’s Sultangazi district earlier this month.

Taylan Tanay, the lawyer for the two musicians, said Altın’s eardrum was intentionally ruptured since she is the group’s lead singer, while Balcı’s arm was broken as she plays violin, daily Taraf reported yesterday. Tanay said the band members were tortured by police while they were handcuffed.