12/03/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
Trans woman İrem, who lives in Ankara, Turkey, was subjected to police torture on Libya Street on the night of March 7-8. İrem was beaten and detained, and held at the police station until the morning. Her lawyer, Elif Burcu Akman, told Pink Life about the details of the incident.
Trans woman İrem, who lives in Ankara, was subjected to torture and ill-treatment by police officers on Libya Street in Ankara, Turkey on the night of March 7-8. Following the incident, İrem was detained, held at the police station until morning, and placed under judicial control.
İrem’s lawyer, Elif Burcu Akman, told Eylem Esen Arabacı, editor at Pink Life Association, about the process and the problems they encountered in the case file.
She was beaten; violence continued in the police vehicle
According to İrem’s lawyer Elif Burcu Akman, the incident began on Libya Street in Ankara on the night of March 7-8. First neighborhood watch officers (bekçi), and then police officers, carried out an ID check. During this time, the door of a police vehicle was deliberately opened forcefully and hit İrem. When İrem attempted to photograph the vehicle’s license plate in order to file a complaint, police officers tried to seize her phone. She was beaten during the incident; her hair was pulled, she was subjected to insults and transphobic slurs, dragged on the ground, and the violence continued inside the police vehicle.
She was not allowed to contact her lawyer for four hours
Despite requesting to contact her lawyer, İrem was reportedly not allowed to do so for approximately four hours. After being held at the police station until morning, she was referred to the prosecutor’s office and placed under judicial control. The case file states that three police officers obtained medical reports documenting injuries and filed complaints against İrem, alleging that she refused to provide identification and resisted officers in the performance of their duties. Lawyer Akman also emphasized that the incident is not isolated and that İrem was subjected to similar police violence in the same area about two and a half years ago.
“This process is not an isolated incident”
Lawyer Akman said the following in a statement to Pink Life:
“There is a point I particularly want to emphasize here: this process is not an isolated incident. About two and a half years ago, İrem was subjected to torture and ill-treatment in almost the same place through similar law enforcement practices; Pink Life had reported on that incident as well. What happened in this case unfolded in exactly the same way as the previous one. Once again, at the same location, and once she said she would file a complaint against the police/officers, the same kind of violence was used; afterward, in order to legitimize this violence, the allegation of ‘insulting the president’ was brought into play. In the previous case as well, this allegation was put forward through inaccurate reports, and the file was separated only with regard to the ‘insulting the president’ charge and a public prosecution was initiated. In the previous file, my complaint against the police officers and neighborhood watch officers, İrem’s complaint against them, and their complaints against us are still waiting at the investigation stage. Despite the roughly two and a half years that have passed, no effective investigation has been conducted and the file has not progressed.”
Tags: human rights, women, media, life, trans, lgbti
