Observations in prison of Siverek
Human Rights Association (IHD) – Urfa branch reported that there are severe cases of torture of some detainees remaning in custody in prisons of Urfa and Siverek. After this report a delegation consisting of lawyer Eren Keskin, lawyer Gulay Koca, their fellower Gökhan Dayikli and the head of IHD Urfa branch Atilla Yazar visited the prison of Siverek and Urfa on 13th July 2016.
The detainees interviewed by the delegation told that they were tortured by different methods.
Delegation:
Firstly it shall be noted that people detained and held in custody in prison of Urfa are prevented by the police to have encounters with their lawyer, that is an act against the law. Police try to prevent opposition lawyers to entry the investigations and they try to determine their own attoneys. Urfa Bar Assocition has many times applied but never received a positive result. These unlawful acts of police continue.
Statements of victims:
Some of the female detainees interviewed by our delegation, were detained due to operations against Party of Democratic Regions. Their expressions can be summarized as follows:
X1- She was detained on 25/06/2016 in Siverek in her home in the middle of the night. They took her among threats to the Prison of Urfa (terror department). Her eyes were closed with a cloth, her head closed through a bag and on the bag, her eyes were again closed with another material. She was assaulted due to many sexual expletives and was forced to sit on her knees. They collected her hair and blow to the neck, asking if she was thrilled and pleased. She was forced into smoking, threatening her by saying ‘if you will not smoke, we will put this cigarette into your cunt’. Then they forced her to testify: ‘say what we agreed, and then we will liberate you’. X1 did never accept. Therfore they took her to another room, naked her and they put their hands on her breats and other parts of body and forced her to tell about the persons on the pictures they showed. After that she fell on the ground they throw water, cologne and made her to smell onions. Later on they took her to the hospital in Urfa. They insisted to the doctors to inject her so they could bring her back to the prison. Later on X1 had a severe problem with her jaw, the doctors and police forces tried to open her closed mouth/jaw in panic. Doctors made a needle injection and then forced back to the prison. X1 does not want to tell about the methods of sexual torture, because she does not want that her husband will learn about them. Therefore these sexual methods of torture are not documented in our offical report. After the detention she was droven back to hospital, but without never leaving the police car, doctors against all national and international law, asked the police in the car if there are any signs of beatings, police said ‘no’. Doctors gave a report saying ‘no sign of beatings’. And they took her to prosecutor’s office witouth medical help.
X2 – The victim is only 19 years old. She is originally from Mus-Malazgirt. Because they are so poor, she worked for 6 years in a textile company in Istanbul. She is in Urfa due to a visit of her friends. And in the meantime she wants to visit her brother-in-law who is in prison. While traveling from Viransehir to Siverek in a minibus, a police car stopped them due to identity check. 4 civil policemen took her to prison of Siverek, anti-terror branch. On the way, they insulted her sexualy and threatened to rape her. Once out of the car, she was forced to wear handcuffs and taken to a room. Policemen told: ‘bitch face to the wall.’ She turns her face to the wall. Then they blindfolded her with a cloth. Then they put her a sack on her head, and bended her eyes again with a cloth and start to rob her dress. Only underwear remain on her body. After a while a policewoman comes in and tells her to remove her bra and the rest of her underwears. She is made to sit up and down many times and is mocked. Then the policewoman tells to put her cloths. After she left, policemen come to room and say: ‘the leader will come to fuck you’. After a while the person they call ‘the leader’ comes in. He said ‘you little whore, I will fuck you, girls who come here turns into widows when they leave the prison. We will rape you as a gang, you will leave togehter with your little bastard’, he treatened her, while constantly touching his hands on her hips and chest. They dragged her on the floor. The shot back and forth on her stomach and feets. They crushed her head with their feets. In the meantime, they are whispering to each other laughing. After a while she is almost to faint and has lost her all power. They put her into the room of custody. However they take her to prison of Urfa. All the way from Siverek, they handcuffed her hands from behind. They blindfold her. They try to force her to sign some papers. But she refuses. Meanwhile, the person they address as the ‘leader’ comes again into the room and says: ‘they have fucked her, let us also fuck her’. She is again tortured intensively. Then they took the victim to open her eyes in a dark room. Some photos are shown and they ask if she knew them. She said she did not recognize them, while the beating went on. The ‘leader’ said ‘put this whore into the Palestinian position, I will fuck her from behind’, he treatened all the time by raping. The victim was exposed to 5 days of torture. She was forced by a lawyer that she did not know, to sign some papers, but she refused. When refusing she had a slap in her face by the lawyer. While on the way to hospital she was threatened all the time: ‘we will kill you’. They call the doctor when they go to the hospital. Witout leaving the car, the doctor looks into the police car and asked ‘are there any sign of beatings’ the policemen responding ‘there are no sign of beatings’. The doctor leaves.
In our interview she says mostly the threats to reveal her naked fotos, made her to scare. She suffers from Hepatitis B. She complaint she was refused to take her medicines while in prison.
X3- The victim is born in Mus 1993. On 03/06/2016 while going to the office of her lawyer, she was detained by 3 civilian policemen and taken to the policestation, anti-terror branch. The victims eyes are blindfolded twice. One of the cops shouts at her to kneel in front of them, the other drags her hair, another kicks her body. Then the victim is removed from the floor to sit on a chair. One of the officers hits her head with a plastic object, another kicks to her back, while permenantly asking questions. When she says ‘I don’t know’. They increase the beatings. Meanwhile, among them, ‘President’ is called. This person tells ‘we have come all the way from Ankara, don’t send us empty handed’, he treatens. Then the beatings with a harder object start on my head, she said. They have handcuffed her arms from behind and the victim fells to the ground. One of them thry to crush the head while someone else touches the vagina and hips. They constantly threatened with rape. Meanwhile, one of the policemen are constantly rubbing against the victim and touched the buttocks. And the victim is threatened with rape. Meanwhile, they also put a bag over the face. They hit on the head so as to remember the number. One of the police arm tries to extinguish cigarettes. They constantly threatened with death. Then they leave and bring the victim who is unconscious in a cell. There are coming moaning sounds from everywhere. The next day, the lawyer comes. They force the victim to sign papers in a condition of threatening glances. The victim although being target of a severe torture never received a report from doctors at the hospital, confirming the beatings.
In our meeting with the victim, it was revealed that nude photos were taken, therefore the victim is concerned and upset.
X4- The victim lives in Hilvan and is a honorary manager of DBP. The victim is 42-years-old and a tailor. On 1st June 2016, policemen come to the house of the victim and took the victim and a woman who was a visitor, to Hilvan Police Departement. They were not subjected to any mistreatment. In the afternoon they took the victim to the prison of Urfa. After two days in custody, a policewoman takes the victim 2 floors upstairs. They blindfold the detainee twice and put a sack over the head. While asking what they are doing, they respond: ‘’We are a group from Ankara, we come to fight and end you. You can’t ask or take an account of the things that we are doing to you.’’ And they began to ask questions about certain people. They threatened as follows: ‘’We will put you on the operating table, you have asthma, we will put you in a ice cask. We will give electricity to you via chest and your genitals.’’ The victim constantly asked: ‘why do you do this to me, I am as old as your mother’. She entered into a severe crisis of cry. They insulted her more becuase her son is in jail. After a while they open her eyes and show her 3 pictures. When she said she don’t recognise them, they increased the torture. Then they took her to the cell. After a while they took the victim to a cell. She stays 2 days alone in the cell. The place is very dirty. The victim says she had a great fear. 2 days later again they took her to prison of Siverek. The victim has a headscarf, they forced her to take it away. While taking her to doctor, they continued psychological pressure. The doctor comes to the police car and asks if there are any sign of beatings. Policemen respond ‘there are no sings of torture/beatings’. The victim experienced sexual torture, but she didn’t want this to be documented in our official report.
X5- Victim is a DBP manager. 3 months ago she lost her husband. She has 5 children and their financial situation is very bad. On 06.01.2016, at 05:00 o’clock in the morning, police forces come to her house. They put the house up and down while searching and confiscated some books. Policemen take her to Siverek. Fingerprints are taken afterwards, they take her to Police Departement anti-terror branch in Urfa. First they put her into detention and later they take her 2 floors upstairs. After a while, two policemen come and they bend her eyes twice and threaten her again. They took all clothes, standing totally naked. 4 policemen hit her in head and stomach and said: ‘we will transform you into a transgender’ while they said homophobic curses. After a while, they took the detainee back into custody. Late at night, they took the victim to another room. A masked person sat in the room, said as follows: ‘We know you, your husband has died, you have 5 children, we will help you’ and proposes the victim to become an agent/collabrator. The victim refuses this and they began to beat again. Then the next day they bring her back from Urfa. Even doctors do not listen to the victim at all. Even though she explained she were tortured but doctor didn’t took this seriously. The victim is mostly sad for her children. Because of their economic situation, her 15-years-old child must work.
Our delegation met two male executives of DBP in prison. They told us they were not psychally tortured but stated they were threatened constantly.
Observations in prison of Urfa T type
We had an encouter with one prisoner in Prison of Urfa T type. This prison is established since 2 months and therefore there are a lot of problems. There are a lot of defects and many human rights violations.
M.D, a detainee was arrested in Ceylanpinar after killing of two policemen. The victim is arrested only due to suspicious. After arrest, they take him to a cave near Ceylanpinar. There are different kinds of tools for torturing in the cave. Policemen threaten him and beat him and force a bucket on the head of M.D. The bucket was little and therefore he couldn’t take his head out of it. After a while they took off his cloths. They tortured him and put bludgeon into his genitals and his anus. Afterwards they handcuffed his hands and feet to a sofa, beating his chest. Later on policemen bend the victim’s hands and put him into a well. When the victim was taken out from the well, he still was naked, they urine on his body. One of the policemen took his penis out and asked him to lick it. During this event his face was bended with a red, yellow and green cloth.
M.D faints, while he was on the ground he could see under the cloths. He said he heard and recognized the prosecutor’s voice (he had heard the voice of him before). There were two other rangers working for the state near the prosecutor. One of the rangers were talking in kurdish and the other in arabic.
After that M.D is councious, they took out one of his teets with a claw. They keep him for 3 days in the cave near Ceyplanpinar. Afterwards they took him to the hospital in Urfa. Doctors asked policemen ‘what have you done to him’. The policemen got upset with doctor. During 3 days in detention in the cave, M.D never received food or water. After the stay on hospital they take him to police department anti-terror branch. Late during the night, policemen were talking among them saying: ‘what we did to Haci Lokman Birlik, we shall do to him as well’. They bend his legs. They put a gun to his head, insulted him, made the weapon ready to fire and told him to’kill your self’. M.D thinks that death is better the way he is being treated and pulls to fire the weapon. But there are no bullet in the gun.
The victim told our delegation that previously he was thinking always of commiting suicide, but now he and other prisoners in jail are supporting each other.
Result of our observations
On 13th July 2016, we, a delegation of IHD visited prison of Urfa and Siverek. The circumstances in both prisons are against national law in Turkey, against criterias of Europe Human Rights Agreement, Protocol of Istanbul and Agreement of Istanbul. Expriences of detainees during their detention are full of violations of law.
We noted that all detainees that we met, are in need of physical therapy. But they dont have such possibilities at all.
Atilla Yazar, head of IHD – Urfa Branch
Eren Keskin, lawyer and member of Executive Board of IHD
Gülay Koca, lawyer and former head of IHD – Urfa Branch
Gökhan Dayıklı, lawyer and member of Executive Board of IHD – Urfa Branch