‘Prisoners strip-searched, battered during transfers’

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The Human Rights Association (İHD) Antalya Branch has shared the findings of its report on the violations of rights committed during the transfers of prisoners from the Antalya Type L Prison to the newly built Type S Prison in the same prison campus on July 7, 2021.

The İHD Antalya Branch has said, "It has been detected that most of the transferred prisoners were subjected to strip search, they chanted the slogan of 'Human dignity will beat torture' in response to this, some prisoners were battered by wardens afterwards, they were forced to lie on the ground, handcufed behind their backs and put in one-person rooms."

The report has indicated that upon the applications of prisoners' relatives and attorneys to the Association on July 8, the İHD Antalya Branch Prisons and Law Commission members - lawyers went to the prison for examination and had meetings with prisoners there.

'Suspicion that meetings with lawyers tapped'

The report has said that the meetings were held by phone in closed meeting rooms and allegations of prisoners were written down in the minutes. Ithas noted, "The prisoners who came for the meeting could have the phones opened by dialling the last six digits of their ID numbers, which has raised the suspicion that the meetings with attorneys are unlawfully tapped."

Noting that the prisoners subjected to strip search were transferred to a prison inside the same campus, the report has indicated that according to the prisoners' statements, the institution's director was not even informed of the strip search and it was done on the initiative of officials on the grounds that strip search has turned into a "routine" practice in all prisons.

Further in the report, the İHD Antalya Branch has referred to an applicant's statement that one of the prison administratives "took off his own trousers to persuade the prisoners," defining it as "extremely worrisome in terms of the strangeness of the current situation."

'Repeal the regulation making way for strip search'

The İHD Antalya Branch has underlined that strip search was provided with a legal ground by the Article 34 of the Regulation on the Management of Penal Institutions and the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, which was issued by the President on March 28, 2020.

It has stressed that "the related article of the regulation, which is openly against the international conventions, the Constitution and the law, must be urgently repealed and it is vital that as a precaution, the Justice Ministry ensures the halt of the practice by issuing an internal circular." (KÖ/SD)