Prisoners taken from jail by Turkish police, tortured at police station for days in Antalya

File photo.

Yet another striking case of widespread and systematic torture at prisons and detention centers was reported in Turkey which has been ruled under a nationwide state of emergency declared by Erdoğan regime just after the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

As more than 135,000 people were investigated, detained and over 50,000 people were jailed as part of post-coup witch hunt campaign targeting opposition groups in the country and especially the alleged members of Gülen movement, a case of torture reported in Antalya’s L-Type Prison on Thursday.

According to a news report by BirGün daily, prisoner Hasan Yakut, who has been jailed in Antalya’s L-Type prison, was called by prison guards, who had told Yakut that his ‘lawyers were waiting’ for him. Having left his ward after changing his clothes, he returned 5 days later – though it was supposed to be one hour meeting – with torture marks over his body.

Lawyer Deniz Yıldırım told BirGün that prisoner Yakut was taken to the police station and tortured there. “Many people, including Yakut’s mother, saw marks of torture on his body. It turns out, he was tortured in police station everyday. He was threatened with sexual harassment with a baton. And, he was threatened that his mother and sister would also be jailed if he did not speak.”

Mentioning that it was not the first time that Hasan Yakut was taken from prison to the police station and tortured, his lawyer Yıldırım added that “Three other detainees were also taken out from their wards with the same method and taken to the police station. It’s come to a point that inmates do not want to come out to speak to their lawyers anymore.”

Lawyer Yıldırım has also told BirGün daily about a scandalous practice at Antalya L-Type Prison and said that “Once, a person came to the prison and wanted to speak to jailed people. When she/he was taken to the visiting room, the person spoke to the detainees in Kurdish and told them she/he was ‘a lawyer who wants to help them.’ Detainees told their families about the name of this person and they found out that there is no such a lawyer with that name registered with the Turkish Bar Associations.”

May 25, 2017

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