The daily wrote that the Gündoğdu family’s home was raided because they were suspected of taking part in illegal activities allegedly being carried out by a religious community known as İsmailağa. The gendarmerie staged simultaneous operations on Feb. 23, 2009 at various spots in Erzincan’s Kemah and Refahiye districts on the prosecutor’s orders. Cemal Gündoğdu was detained in one of the operations. His wife, Sümbül Gündoğdu, tried to stop the activities but was prevented by gendarmes who started to kick her until she fell, according to the Yeni Şafak report.Gündoğdu, who was pregnant at the time after a long-term fertility treatment, fell to the floor, and when the gendarmes found that she was unable to get to her feet despite their threats, carried her to a gendarmerie vehicle in a blanket they found on the premises. However, Sümbül Gündoğdu was not hospitalized but taken to a gendarmerie station, where she was detained. She was later taken to a hospital, but still kept in the detention center until the morning despite having testified to a prosecutor. Sümbül Gündoğdu, who was 14 weeks pregnant at the time, suffered a miscarriage 40 days after the incident, with doctors saying the cause of death of the unborn babies were the heavy blows the mother sustained during the gendarmerie raid.
According to the story, Sümbül Gündoğdu did not file a complaint about the gendarmes at the time because officers from the Refahiye Gendarmerie Command threatened to never release her husband, who was still in custody at the time, if she were to file a complaint.
