JUN 4, 2023 —
Just as we have successfully filed an appeal yesterday against a deportation order by Turkish authorities to return 104 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, a persecuted religious minority, to their home countries where they are victims of severe religious persecution, reports emerged of physical violence, torture and threats of sexual violence by the Turkish police in Edirne, against our members in detention.
A health report put together by the legal team representing the group shows that 30 out of 104 members in detention reported injuries and bruises from the beating, including 10 women and 2 children.
Through a leaked audio recording from inside detention, Puria Lotfiinallou, a 26-year-old Iranian youth, recounts harrowing details of the severe beatings he endured and other members endured.
He said: “They hit me and knocked my head on the ground and took me and when we reached the police station, they took me into a room and pulled my hair and hit me on the ground several times and beat me.”
Physical violence was not the only form of abuse the group was exposed to. Puria proceeds to narrate how prison guards threatened him with sexual violence, asking him to perform oral sex on him, and that they would kill him if he tells anyone. He said: “Then they took me to the bathroom and here he told me that you should give me a blow job…they told us to falsely say that we are fine and if we don’t say that we are fine, we will hit you and kill you.”
As Puria’s disturbing account was heard over the phone, I could not get his voice out of my mind, a visible stutter could be heard out of the fear and shock of what he witnessed. He relays how even the most vulnerable were not spared, elderly men and women with health conditions beaten until they fell unconscious…
“They treat us like prisoners. And where I was, they beat a 75-year-old man and bruised his leg, and they didn’t even spare an old man. And they even took sister Zahra (51 years old) and beat her, and she fell unconscious on the ground and her condition was bad, and no one was even looking at her.”
Puria’s account is just one of many we have been receiving over the past few days from men and women of various ages and nationalities, showing Turkish authorities’ deliberate targeting of our members in detention, and its outrageous violation of international human rights law, and international refugee law and freedom of religion.
The tragedy of this pressing situation has only been made worse by the Media’s absence and not reporting on this issue. While 104 asylum seekers, including 27 women, and 22 children from over 7 different countries are at risk of death sentences, imprisonment, torture, and cruel and inhumane treatment if Turkey deports them back to their countries, while their every basic human right is being systematically abused by Turkish authorities in detention, we have been struggling to get Media’s attention to properly report on such an urgent humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile their state media is reporting false news accusing the journalists of being agents and spies for the UK.
Turkey must be held accountable for these grave human rights abuses, the perpetrators must be prosecuted, reparations must be delivered and justice must be served for the victims.
The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) is a 501c3 non-profit organization. This is the Call of Imam Al-Mahdi, the saviour of mankind, to all the people of the world.
Imam Al-Mahdi has appeared, with his successors Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan, and Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Them is Peace).
Imam Al-Mahdi is calling the people to the true Supremacy of God.
