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Jailed women were threatened with gang rape in Turkey

WOMEN jailed and tortured in Turkey’s Urfa province last month have revealed the extent of the violence and suffering they endured during 12 days of detention.

They spoke to the Mesopotamia Agency (MA) about their ordeal which included threats of gang rape by Turkish police who tortured them with electricity and beatings.

The Kurdish women were part of a group detained after clashes in the Halfeti district on May 18 which led to the death of a special operations officer and two alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

More than 50 people were rounded up in the subsequent raids on accusations of “aiding and abetting terrorists.”

Following their release last week the women were too traumatised to speak about their experiences, saying that terrible things had happened “but we are too ashamed to tell.”

However they today described having the soles of their feet beaten while hanging upside down, as well as electrocution by their genitals and nipples and the threat of being raped.

One woman told MA: “One of the police officers … threatened to rape me. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at me and told me to speak the truth. I told him I knew nothing.

“He pulled my hair and dragged me to the wall. He said he would smash my face into the wall, that he would would rip me apart with a knife ‘here and now’.”

“Then he told the female cop to take me out of the room or he will kill me.”

Another said: “They put us all in a room apart from each other facing the walls. They ordered us not to turn back. We stayed there for an hour standing, our faces turned towards the walls.

“A policewoman came and took me upstairs. Someone put a sack on my head and handcuffed me from the back. I didn’t see their face. They laid me down on the ground the minute we walked into the room and they started to kick me.

“They started to undress me. One of them started to electrocute me from my genitals with a cable. I was feeling faint. 

“They electrocuted me from my nipples, arms and legs. Those who electrocuted me were threatening me with gang rape.”

The shocking allegations have led to international outrage and calls for Turkey to be isolated as a “pariah state.”

Labour MP Chris Williamson laid down Early Day Motion 2424 in the House of Commons on May 23, calling for the British government to review its relations with Ankara.

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