Local human rights groups have announced that female inmates incarcerated in the eastern province of Ağrı were subjected to severe mistreatment, including being hogtied for four hours, Boldmedya reported on Friday.
The alleged incident was revealed during a press conference held jointly by the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), the Association for Solidarity with Families of Prisoners and Convicts (TUHAY-DER) and the Van Bar Association to introduce a report on rights violations in a prison facility in the Patnos district.
According to the report, some 40 prison guards and gendarmes raided a women’s ward and began to physically assault prisoners Lale Kabişen and Nazlıcan Barışer. The two were later hogtied, taken to a waiting room and made to wait there for four hours.
The mistreatment was reportedly carried out in the presence of three prison administrators, one of whom told the victims, “This is what you get for leaking what’s going on to the outside world.”
When the prisoners were hospitalized, they were rear-handcuffed and dragged by their hair to the vehicle.
Disciplinary investigations have been launched into male prisoners who protested the mistreatment by banging on their cell doors, the groups said.
The report was produced based on meetings the groups had with the victims, who had multiple bruises on their bodies that corroborated the allegations.
Bar associations and human rights organizations in Turkey have been reporting hundreds of mistreatment allegations involving prison facilities and police detention centers every year. Some inmates, such as Garibe Gezer, died soon after the reported incidents.
An atmosphere of impunity generally prevails over these incidents as authorities either refuse to investigate or give lenient sentences to prison guards convicted of mistreatment, sometimes despite available video footage confirming the allegations.
