DİYARBAKIR - Noting that the violations rights such as torture and right to access to healthcare against prisoners in Diyarbakır and Elazığ prisons have increased, İHD Diyarbakır Branch said that they will file a criminal complaint regarding the violations.

 

Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) published its report on the violations of rights in Diyarbakır and Elazığ prisons. Speaking before the statement, İHD Diyarbakır Branch President Abdullah Zeytun said, "Prisons have become normalized places. The violations brought by the increasing number of prisoners and convicts continue. With the restrictions and bans followed by the pandemic, the most basic rights of prisoners such as access to healthcare and visiting rights are completely blocked. We will file a criminal complaint regarding these violations."

 

IHD Headquarters Prisons Commission Spokesperson Ercan Yılmaz, who read the report later, stated that their delegations visited Diyarbakır and Elazığ Prison Campus on October 27-28, 2021.

 

TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT

 

Ercan listed the violations they determined as a result of their interviews with prisoners as follows:

 

“* It has been determined that social and cultural activities are not allowed in prisons due to the Covid-19 outbreak or this right is given to prisoners in a limited way.

 

* Due to the convincing and detailed reporting of the torture or ill-treatment of prisoners in some prisons; it has been concluded that torture or ill-treatment practices continue in prisons.

 

* Prisoners' requests for transfer and ward change were rejected for unjustified or unlawful reasons; it has been observed that this problem still persists.

 

* The prisoners stated the prison guards use double handcuffs on them and want to search the mouth cavity.

 

* They said that the prison guards did not act in accordance with the pandemic measures during the searches in the wards and that they were often exposed to insults and unlawful acts.

 

RIGHT TO ACCESS HEALTHCARE

 

* It was stated that the close visits are still 45 minutes due to the pandemic even though the regulation says it could be extended to 1 and a half hours.

 

* The products prisoners buy from the canteen are of poor quality and expensive.

 

* It was told that ordinary prisoners and islamists were put next to political prisoners.

 

* Female prisoners told that they were not given hygenic peds and the ones sold in the canteen is way too expensive.