"Are you Aware of Violence in Prisons?"

On 20 September, five women detainees were allegedly assaulted by 30 women guards under the supervision of two assistant managers, one of whom was a woman, at the Sincan Prison in Ankara.

Levent Gök, member of the Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission and Deputy of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), submitted a corresponding parliamentary question to the Minister of Justice, Sadullah Ergin, on Monday (26 September).

According to an announcement of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) Ankara Branch, the five woman detainees Nehar Avcı, Diren Yağan, Didem Ezgi Serap, Müzeyyen Çınar and Eda Dişkaya were beaten and deprived of food and water for one night and the following day.

The detainees requested to be taken to the forensic medicine. They were taken to the Sincan State Hospital Emergency Room and were superficially examined by a female physician on duty. The ÇHD claimed in their statement, "Beating marks were on the arms, legs, faces and heads of the detainees". The lawyers association is going to file a criminal complaint regarding the incident.

"Is this not a violation of human rights?"

Gök drew attention to the current situation in his motion, "Ill-treatment and violence against detainees and convicts in prison are subject of a vast number of complaints. However, in statements made by your ministry, the situation in prisons is described in the opposite way and it is said that prisons are being run without any problems". The Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission member addressed Justice Minister Ergin with the following questions:

* "Do you have any information on the incidents on 20 September at the Ankara Sincan Women Prison where women detainees Avcı, Yağan, Seratp, Çınar and Dişkaya were beaten by 30 women guards under the supervision of two assistant managers? Do you know that they were denied food and water?

* Do you know anything about the detained women's being taken to the Sincan State Hospital Emergency Room the same evening where they were handcuffed and where the doctors on duty did not show any interest in them?

* Do you not think that keeping these women in single cells, the violence imposed to them in prison and the inhumane attitude demonstrated in hospital are violations of the most basic human rights?

* What are you going to do about the guards who treated the women detainees violently, about the prison administration that keeps the women in single cells and about the doctors on duty in hospital who refused to do a proper examination?"

The ÇHD Ankara Branch also mentioned sick detainees and convicts in prison in their statement and demanded "to release them and treat them medically under humane conditions". (AS/VK)