‘Prisoners strip-searched, their fundamental rights denied in Batman prisons’

* Photo: İHD Batman Branch Twitter account

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Human Rights Association (İHD) Batman Branch has released a report on the violations of rights encountered in Batman's prisons.

The report of the İHD Batman Branch has shown that the prisoners in Turkey's southeastern province of Batman are faced with serious problems in exercising their fundamental rights such as the right to communication and healthcare. It has also raised concerns about the allegations of strip search, torture and ill treatment expressed by arrestees and convicts.

Demanding the improvement of the prison conditions in the province, the İHD has requested an effective investigation into the allegations of torture and ill treatment and penalization of the responsible ones.

Covering the Batman High Security Penal Institution and Batman Type T Closed Penal Institution in Batman's Beşiri district, the report has indicated that the İHD Batman Branch Prison Commission took action upon receiving complaints from these prisons and met with the arrestees and convicts and their families and attorneys about the related violations.

Within this context, the İHD report has shared detailed information about the violations of the right to communication and to make a phone call, contact and non-contact visits, health conditions amid the pandemic, torture and ill treatment and strip search in Batman prisons.

Some highlights from the report are as follows:

Health conditions in prisons

• It has been detected that the treatment of some seriously ill prisoners at and over the age of 60 should be provided at fully-fledged hospitals but the prisoners are not provided with this opportunity.
• It has been observed that even though there is an injured prisoner in prison, he or she is not taken to a hospital and the sick room of the prison falls short in cases like this.
• It has been concluded that during the searches conducted in wards on a weekly and monthly basis and in extraordinary situations, wardens do not act by taking measures and some prisoners have caught novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for this reason.
• In case of transfer to prisons, arrival of new prisoners and referrals to hospital, prisoners are quarantined for 20 days to a month. The prisoners who do not want to stay in quarantine face serious sanctions such as the denial of their requests for going to a hospital.
• It has been indicated that prisoners do not have access to clean water, drinking water is not healthy, daily water usage quota is insufficient and some prisoners cannot have a bath for 18 days during transfers.

Torture and ill treatment

• During the meetings with prisoners, some prisoners said that they were subjected to torture and ill treatment. They especially indicated that during the transfers from the Siirt prison, they were forced to undergo strip search before entering the prison, they were taken out of the sight of security cameras by a group of wardens, subjected to insults, ill treatment and torture, battered and stripped by force because they had refused to undergo strip search. In the meetings made upon these statements, the prisoners confirmed this situation.
• In some wards, searches are conducted two times a month; in some others, they are conducted 3-4 times a week. It has been observed that these searches are carried out with bare hands despite the pandemic, inhuman searches are done such as looking inside the mouth, prisoners are forced to give an oral report during the searches.

Strip search

• It has been detected that while arrestees are taken to a hearing, arrestees and convicts are taken to a hospital, prisoners are transferred from other provinces and new arrestees arrive upon the rulings of arrest handed down by Penal Judgeships of Prace, they are subjected to strip search while entering and leaving the prison.
• It has been understood that the arrestees and convicts transferred from the Siirt Type E Closed Penal Institution to the Batman Type T Closed Penal Institution are forced to undergo a strip search before entering the prison, the prisoners who refuse to be strip-searched were battered, they were subjected to the insults of wardens and they were stripped by force by wardens.

No social, cultural activities

• Prisoners have indicated that no activities of sports, culture and arts are allowed in Batman prisons.

(KÖ/SD)