PSNI abuse Turkish man

A Turkish national is accusing the PSNI of racially abusing and assaulting him in Belfast city centre on Saturday 27 November.

Musa Gulusen (36), who has lived in Belfast for more than a decade, said he was called a "kebab boy" during PSNI raids on unlicensed stalls in Belfast's Royal Avenue and claimed he was surrounded by PSNI men who forced him to the ground and held his arms behind his back.

"I tried to tell them that my licence to street trade was pending, but they wouldn't listen," he said.

The PSNI members put him into the back of a Land Rover where, he says, they racially abused and assaulted him. Gulusen was later admitted to hospital for treatment for a broken arm and bruising to his face and back.

Barbara Muldoon of the Anti-Racism Network (ARN) said the Ombudsman's Office had begun investigations. "Of all the racist attacks across the North over the last number of years this is without doubt the most serious," she said.

Muldoon said the ARN had taken a statement from another stallholder, Gerard Stitt, who said that he had seen plenty of raids on stalls " but I have never seen anything like this, this was disgraceful".

The Ombudsman's Office has appealed for witnesses.