Brother in arms tells his story - Brigadier General Mehmet Sukru EKEN (1)

My dear friends,

I would like to share information with you about Brigadier General Mehmet Şükrü EKEN, who passed away on April 19, 2021.

Our fellow comrade in arms, our precious Commander, graduated from Turkish Military Academy in 1987. He served at every level of Turkish Army from team commander to brigade commander. After graduating from the Army War Academy as a staff officer, he served in the headquarters and the continent, including abroad. While he was the Commander of Samsun Field Sanitary School and Training Center, his last place of duty, he was arrested on July 17, 2016 after the events of July 15. He remained in confinement in a solitary cell in Samsun E-Type Penitentiary Institution with soldiers for two months, then in Bafra T-Type Penitentiary Institution with the order of the Ministry until his passing with the conditions of heavy imprisonment for life.

I would like to draw attention to an important point here. The court decision of our commander, taken by the Samsun 3rd High Criminal Court on April 6, 2018, is a "life imprisonment" sentence. He remained under the conditions of “aggravated life imprisonment” for 862 days from September 26, 2016 when he was put in a one-person ward to February 1, 2019 when he objected to solitary confinement after the court decision. Since his objection was not taken into consideration, he continued to remain in the same conditions for another 782 days until March 24, 2021 when he was hospitalized. In total, he remained under these conditions for a total of 235 weeks, that is, 1644 days. What are these conditions: Deprivation of the right to stay in the open air for 8 hours in a restricted area, chat with others and socialize, bereaving of his television and radio (only his television were given back to him as a result of his objection), and the cancellation of open visits due to the COVID-19 outbreak, that is, an absolute torture.

Although our commander stated very clearly in his petition, the administration has committed a crime in violation of Article 17 of the Constitution and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights by arbitrary practice. According to the recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, this situation has been accepted as torture. In other words, our commander was systematically tortured for 1644 days.

Torture is an internationally recognized crime with no statute of limitations.

My friends, before I mention the court process of our commander, which I will address in my next article, who should have been acquitted at the beginning of the incident, I finish my article by conveying how he saw this process in his own words.

“During the hearing, I observed that my defense was listened without any importance, and that it was like ‘it's your turn, let's listen to you and pass’ like watching a match with a known result.”