Female prisoners in Elazığ and Tarsus have been subjected to torture by soldiers and prison guards.

BRUISES ON THEIR BODIES

A prisoner’s relative who went to Elazığ from Amed for a visit spoke to the ANF on condition of anonymity and stated that 21 female prisoners in the C6 ward of the Elazığ Type T Closed Prison have been battered and verbally harassed by prison guards during roll call in the weekend. Some of these women have been pushed down stairs in the prison and most of them have suffered bruises on their hands, arms and waists following the torture.

Meanwhile the prison guards offered a curious defense when the women complained: “The bruises have occurred due to prisoners pinching each other.”

VERBAL SEXUAL HARRASSMENT AND TORTURE BY SOLDIERS

Detainee Azize Yakoğlu in Tarsus Type T Closed Prison wrote a letter documenting her experience since being transferred there from the Tarsus Type C Closed Prison. Yakoğlu said they received threats by ranked and private soldiers at the gate.

Yakoğlu also reported they were subjected to verbal and physical sexual harassment when they were put into the prison shuttle and that the soldiers said, “We will kill you all, we are all men of the state.”

Yakoğlu wrote the following on the torture they were subjected to: “I was kicked in my chest. They forced us onto the ground and kicked us. They stepped on us and stood there. They kicked us in the legs and back. Some of our friends were thrown up into the air and allowed to drop to the floor. We were dragged on the floor by our hair, slapped in the face, punched in the stomach. They held our mouths and smothered us. After all these, they started to move us in and out of the wards by dragging us on the floor, we were left without shoes and handcuffed behind our backs.”

Yakoğlu said they were attacked by “robocops”, i.e. riot police with body armor, as they were moved to the wards and that when they asked for water, the guards told them they wouldn’t be given a drop even if rain poured outside.

Yakoğlu stated that 15 other women transferred from Sincan Women’s Closed Prison were subjected to the same torture.

Yakoğlu said they were also tortured for speaking in Kurdish among themselves and pointed out that more than half of the staff was male, even though they are in a women’s prison.

Azize Yakoğlu wrote: “Rather than awareness, we want you to stand against the torture and mistreatment that goes against human dignity, we want you to expose what happened and follow up on it.”

Şehmus Ilhan, with a triple report from the Institution of Forensic Medicine that he is not fit to stay in prison, is among hundreds of sick prisoners who are waiting to be released. 43 year old Ilhan has been in prison for 25 years, and his health is deteriorating every day. Ilhan is not taken into surgery due to a risk. He is calling for public awareness from the Van Type T Closed Prison he is held in.