NCJ Number
177630
Date Published
1997
Length
49 pages
Annotation
This report documents a pattern of torture -- according to internationally recognized definitions of the term -- and mistreatment of pretrial detainees by the Anti-Terror Branch of the Security Directorate of Turkey's Ministry of the Interior.
Abstract
The findings are based on data from the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey's Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, as reported by 545 individuals who applied to the Center for treatment in 1995 after reporting torture in police detention or in prison. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki interviewed 25 individuals who reported being tortured; 22 were ethnic Kurds, and 3 were Turks. The evidence indicates that security detainees held for alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of state security courts suffer a wide range of abuses and are exempted from many of the most important due-process protections introduced by a 1992 amendment to Turkey's Code of Criminal Procedure, Law No. 3842. While in detention, numerous methods of torture are used to gain a confession, information, or simply to punish those who oppose the state. The most often used methods, frequently applied in combination, are hanging by the arms in a variety of positions, electric shock, beating of the soles of the feet, spraying with high-pressure water, beatings, death threats or the threat of sexual abuse, the squeezing of testicles or breasts, isolation, and stripping the suspect naked. Detainees are also often blindfolded, not fed properly, kept in cramped quarters, and not allowed to wash or use the toilet. Torture by the anti-terror unit is neither spontaneous nor due to the unapproved actions of rogue officers. The unit has methodically incorporated torture and abuse into its daily operations, using special equipment, including special straps to bind detainees, high-pressure hoses, racks for suspending suspects by their arms, and instruments to apply electric shock. This report presents recommendations for addressing such abuses to the government of Turkey, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the U.S. Government, the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Appended summary of interviews with detainees