The Human Rights Foundation (İHD) has received eight complaints alleging rights violations in a Diyarbakır prison in southeastern Turkey over the course of a single day, the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Thursday.
The complaints include denial of medical care to sick prisoners, coercion to undergo hospitalization in handcuffs, inadequate meals, insufficient open-air time, arbitrary restrictions on social contacts, strip-searches during relatives’ visits and overpricing in the prison cafeteria.
Sabri Yılmaz, an inmate suffering from kidney disease, is being taken to the hospital once every three or four months despite the fact that he needs to visit every month, according to his mother. He is also provided with only four of the six medications that have been prescribed for him.
Leading Europe in the number of prisoners according to a 2022 report by the Council of Europe, Turkey is notorious for its poor prison conditions. The country’s prison system suffers from systemic problems of torture and ill-treatment, overcapacity, lack of hygiene and arbitrary restrictions imposed by prison administrations.
