Journalist Ziya Ataman says strip searched in prison

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Journalist Ziya Ataman has said that he was strip searched after being transferred from one prison to another last month.

On August 7, he was transferred from the Van High Security Prison to Erzurum Dumlu No. 2 High Security Prison.

He was transferred in a shuttle vehicle despite saying "Yes" when asked "Would experience any discomfort on a long trip," the journalist said in a letter, according to Mezopotamya Agency.

"I call it an exile, because the place I have come is even farther to my family. It's been two weeks, and I still havent't recovered. I was subjected to a strip search at the moment I stepped in here," he wrote.

Ataman further said that he currently stays in a single-person cell even though he hadn't received a solitary confinement penalty or an aggravated sentence. "However, I've been brought to a prison with a single-celling system, anyway."

What happened?

Ataman was a reporter for the Dicle News Agency (DİHA), which was shut down by a statutory decree during the period of State of Emergency after the July 2016 coup attempt.

He was arrested in April 2016 on "terrorism" charges. The indictment against him was issued in December 2017, twenty months after his arrest. He had his first hearing in March 2018.

In September 2019, he was sentenced to 14 years and 3 months in prison for "being a member of a terrorist organization."

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(RT/VK)