Prisoner battered after refusing strip search

Ali Sinan Çağlar, who was detained and arrested in the raid on the People's Law Bureau, filed a criminal complaint, alleging torture and ill-treatment in Kavak S Type Prison in Samsun, where he was transferred.

Lawyer Berrak Çağlar and her husband Ali Sinan Çağlar, along with lawyers Nazan Betül Vangölü Kozağaçlı, Seda Şaraldı, and Didem Baydar Ünsal, were detained during the raid on the office, with Berrak Çağlar being released while Ali Sinan Çağlar and the other three lawyers were arrested.

"His right leg is injured, do not hit"

In the criminal complaint letter addressed to the Kavak Republic Prosecutor's Office, Ali Sinan Çağlar wrote that he refused to undergo a strip search when he was sent to prison on February 24, 2024:

"I stated that after the regulation made in the parliament, stripping search is no longer a routine practice, and I had already been handed over to the military without a search from another prison, and when taken from the military, my belongings were searched, I would pass through an X-ray, and there was no reasonable and valid reason for a strip search.

"I said I would not accept being strip searched because it is not a situation befitting human dignity. One of the officials said, 'We don't recognize the Constitution or the law here, do you undress or not, tell us that.' Another official said, 'Look how we undress you in a little while.'

"Immediately afterward, I was thrown to the ground by 5-6 people in the room, kicked and slapped continuously. At that moment, one of the individuals warned the others, saying, 'His right leg is injured, do not hit the right leg.' I was beaten continuously for a few minutes with kicks and slaps, and they took off my clothes. However, none of the items taken off me were additionally passed through an X-ray. This situation will be seen when the camera records in the Prison Admission Section are examined."

Request to examine camera records

Çağlar requested that the camera records showing the entrance to the search room be included in the investigation file by the prosecutor.

In the petition, he also wrote that on February 26, after they covered the camera in their rooms with a napkin, he again suffered torture and ill-treatment:

"10-15 enforcement protection officers burst in, I was laid face down, my right arm was forced back to its limit, and pressure was applied to my neck."

Criminal complaint not processed

Lawyer Berrak Çağlar stated in her statement to bianet that the prison execution unit did not forward the petition to the prosecutor's office.

Meeting with the administration today, Berrak Çağlar said, "I saw that while the petitions Ali Sinan Çağlar wrote to the prosecutor's office and the transfer request petitions to the Ministry of Justice were forwarded, the criminal complaint petition was not processed. This morning, I came to Kavak Courthouse, and I am filing a criminal complaint about the torture and ill-treatment and also filing a complaint against the prison administration that did not submit the petition, alleging that they tried to hide the incident." (AS/VK)