The Association for Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners (TUAD) has released its report on violations of rights in five prisons in Marmara Region. The report, which was prepared on the basis of TUAD President Lawyer Sinan Zincir's talks with inmates in five prisons, proves that prisoners are suffering from inhuman treatments that trample on human dignity.

TUAD underlined that the situation in Tekirdağ F  Type Prison No.2 is even worse than the prison conditions in the period of 12 September military coup in 1980. TUAD remarked that prisoners are subject to assaults and disciplinary proceedings when they protest against the naked body search imposition and humiliating treatment they suffer from. “Following the investigations, inmates are sentenced to cell confinement. Three inmates sharing one cell are given food for one for dinner. Ill inmates refuse to receive medical treatment because they are put in handcuffs while being taken to medical room or doctor's office. They are therefore taken back to their wards without any kind of medical treatment”, read the report.

TUAD also called attention to the physical and psychological repression inmates suffer from and underlined that the prison administration permanently provokes and attacks inmates for any reason at any time, and that inmates aren't even allowed to make an eye contact with each other while pacing up and down in the corridor.

Referring to 24 inmates who were transferred from Midyat and Kürkçüler prisons to Tekirdağ F  Type Prison No.2, TUAD remarked that these 24 inmates have been facing great difficulties in meeting their basic daily needs since their transfer. It was noted that three political prisoners here were assaulted by a group of 870-80 prison officers on 24 January, and that inmates also suffer from arbitrary bans by the prison administration, such as the denial of Azadiya Welat Kurdish daily and seizure of their personal belongings. TUAD pointed out that; “Inmates met the administrator of the prison to voice their disagreement to be allowed to the medical room on conditions of walking in a military row. The answer they received from the administrator was “Our prison officers are relatives of martyrs (referring to Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with Kurdish guerrillas), we can not control them”.

In the report it was said that the “Ill inmates in Silivri L Type Prison No.2 are denied medical treatment, such as Kurdish politician Recep Karagül who is still held under arrest despite facing a life-threatening illness. On the other hand, the inmates who joined the mass hunger strike by Kurdish political prisoners last year were sentenced to cell confinement and disproportionate body and belongings search by soldiers”.

Referring to the situation in Bursa H Type Prison, TUAD said that “The prison officers, most of whom come from Erzurum, treat inmates with a great anger and hate and provoke them with arbitrary searches and bans such as denial of their right to call their families. Despite all the reactions political inmates voiced, they were forced to receive their family visits in the same area with ordinary prisoners. A discussion on a visit day ended up in the denial of visit to 30 inmates who therefore started a hunger strike on 17 January to demand the improvement of conditions and ending of all these arbitrary impositions”.

The hunger strike here was ended on the 19th day following the meeting Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Bitlis deputy Hüsamettin Zenderlioğlu held with the prison administration and prisoners on strike on Monday.

TUAD ended the report by calling on the government to launch an urgent investigation into violations of rights in prisons and take a criminal and administrative action against those responsible for these violations.