Three organizations condemn detention conditions Saturday People are made subject to

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A joint statement has been made by three organizations on the detention conditions that the Saturday Mothers/People are made subject to each week.

Family members of those who disappeared while in detention and the human rights defenders accompanying them try to organize their traditional sit-in and following press statement in Galatasaray, İstanbul every Saturday.

They are not allowed to do this, but are taken into custody instead.

Ban on torture and ill-treatment

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Human Rights Department, the Human Rights Foundation (TİHV), and the Human Rights Association (İHD) issued a joint statement where they said that keeping the demonstrators inside closed vehicles,when the air temperatures are breaking records, is a violation of ban on torture and ill-treatment. 

Request for an effective investigation

The three organizations said, in their joint statement made today (July 25), that they will be monitoring the investigation stage for the allegations of ill-treatment. 

"The temperature in İstanbul on July 22, 2023, the last date that the Saturday Mothers/People were taken into custoday was 32,2 °C. In such a weather, the temperature inside a closed vehicle may reach up to 60 °C within 2 to 4 hours.

"Therefore any living creatures (humans or animals) left inside a vehicle will have a risk of serious illnesses and even death. 

"When noone should be left inside a vehicle, even with the windows of the vehicle open, the Saturday Mothers/People, some of whom are old aged and have chronic illnesses, are being kept for 3 hours inside a vehicle which is unacceptable. This is clearly a crime of torture and ill treatment."

"The police officers who accompany them inside the vehicle also have the same risks," underlined the statement and called for an effective investigation into the issue.  

What happened?

İstanbul Beyoğlu Strict Governorship banned the 700th meeting of the Saturday Mothers/People on August 25, 2018, on the grounds that "no notification had been made" for the meeting. 

Police raided the Saturday Mothers/People gathering in the Galatasaray Square and took 23 people under custody. 46 people were sued, charged with "violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations." 

Maside Ocak, sister of Hasan Ocak who disappeared while in detention in 1995, was one of those first beaten and then taken into custody. Her mother, Emine Ocak was also subjected to violence. 

Maside Ocak made a criminal complaint against the police and the police chief. However the chief prosecutor's office took a decision for non-prosecution. Ocak went to court and when the İstanbul Court of Peace also rejected her claims, she took the case to the Constitutional Court. 

The supreme court ruled this February that the right to meet and to demonstrate regulated in Article 34 of the Constitution had been violated. Maside Ocak was to be paid 13 thousand and 500 lira of non-pecuniary damages. 

Later the Constitutional Court also ruled that the police officers who battered Sebla Arcan, raiding the demonstration of the Saturday Mothers/People had violated the ban on torture and ill-treatment. The police offices were to stand trial while Arcan was to be paid 50 thousand lira for non-pecuniary damages. 

Despite the two decisions by the supreme court above, the demonstration and press statement by the Saturday Mothers/People in Galatasaray square are being prevented by the police each week. (AS/PE)