Turkey: Torture, Sexual Abuse Rampant in Prisons

Source:Gatestone Institute Date:10Sep2018

AKP returns Turkey to the dark days of 1990s “under the military tutelage”. Events reported here do not befit a civilized country.

 

  • Inmates in a jail in Şanlıurfa in southeast Turkey tell of the plight of 27-year-old Uğur Yeloğlu, who they say has been isolated and tortured so badly since his imprisonment seven months ago that his level of functioning is like that of a baby.
  • Yeloğlu was arrested in Istanbul in January for allegedly “aiding a terrorist organization.” His lawyer, Abdülkadir Aslan, said that in spite of the many months his client has been in jail, his indictment has not yet been prepared by prosecutors: “The investigation file is also marked ‘confidential,’ so we do not know what it contains.”
  • “Prisoners are beaten up and sometimes killed, when they refuse to roll-call standing up, give military salute, reject strip searches, or ask to see a doctor.” — Report by the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).