ES, a Turkish man, recounted his harrowing experiences of torture and imprisonment in his home country due to alleged connections with an opposition group. After suffering brutal treatment during his detention, he struggled to rebuild his life after release. Despite his hardships, including a divorce and job loss, he continued facing threats from authorities. At an immigration court in Texas, his asylum request was denied by Judge Veronica Marie Segovia, leaving him in a precarious situation as he fears for his safety if returned to Turkey.
ES explained how he had been arrested seven years ago in Turkey, amid his government's crackdown on followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. The police officers who detained him accused him of being involved in a terrorist movement, and demanded he reveal the names of his associates.
When I refused, the officers brutally beat me with a stick and raped me. The first time they did it, I passed out, he said. The officers made him smell something to revive him, he told the judge, and then proceeded to torture him again.
In the events that followed my whole life went upside-down, said ES, whom the Guardian is identifying by his initials to protect his safety and the safety of his family.
I understood that I was not safe, my life was not safe there, so I had to leave, he told the court.
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