CPT visited Turkey, didn’t visit Imralı

A group from the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) announced that they have visited 30 prisons and police stations. The group discussed the situation in Imralı but they didn’t visit the prison.

The CPT announced that a committee visited Turkey between May 10 and 23.

It was a periodic visit and the CPT said, “The main goal of this visit was to assess the treatment of persons under police and gendarmerie custody, the situation in prisons and the conditions of detention centers for foreigners.”

CPT stated that to this end, the committee conducted numerous interviews with persons deprived of their freedom in various prisons throughout the country.

The statement included the following on the issue of Imralı: “The committee members also met with authorized officials regarding the situation of prisoners in the Imralı High Security Prison.”

The CPT refrained from any other detail on Imralı, but the prison is not listed among those the committee visited.

The committee met with several Turkish officials including the Ministers of the Interior and Justice. They discussed the mistreatment of post-coup arrestees with Ankara Chief Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman.

After the visit, the committee stated that they shared their first observations with the Turkish authorities. The committee visited the Ankara, Batman, Amed, Siirt, İstanbul and Trabzon Security Directorates and police stations in 3 districts of Istanbul, all under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. Departments partaking in public order and anti-terror units were inspected in the visits. Migrant detention centers were also visited in several cities.

Batman Type M, Diyarbakır Type D, Diyarbakır Type E, Metris Type R, Menemen Type R, Siirt Type E and Trabzon Type E are among the prisons the committee visited.