Detainees who protested against rights violations in a Turkish prison have been transferred to another facility, and a number of them have become subjects of an investigation.
The incident, in which prisoners set fire to a ward twice, on 15 and 17 June, in protest against isolation policies and other rights violations, occurred in the city of Izmir. Those involved in the protest were subsequently transferred to a high-security prison on the same campus.
A delegation comprising representatives from the Lawyers’ Association for Freedom, Human Rights Association (İHD) and pro-Kurdish Green Left Party İzmir MP Burcugül Çubuk met with the prison prosecutor and the detainees on 23 June. İHD spokeswoman Nehir Bilece reported that at the meeting, the delegation spoke with the prisoners who set fire to their ward and with those held in neighbouring wards.
“The prisoners we interviewed stated that they faced constant procrastination in meetings with the prison administration and that they organised the ward burning protest against increasing isolation. We have observed that the prison administration is denying the prisoners their legally granted rights,” Bilece said. Speaking to Mezopotamya Agency (MA), she emphasised that the detainees who set fire to their wards were in good health but were being held in solitary confinement in the prison they were transferred to. “The fact that every action taken by the prisoners to address rights violations leads to disciplinary penalties and increased pressure is ill-treatment in itself,” she added.
“The administration’s arbitrary practices continue in various aspects, including hospital transfers, rights violations during ward searches and inadequate access to food and water,” Bilece commented, drawing attention to the policy of increasing isolation in prisons. She further highlighted the discriminatory treatment of political prisoners in terms of probation rights, stressing the urgent need to abandon such arbitrary practices. Bilece insisted that both judicial and administrative investigations should be initiated against those responsible for such violations, as the prevailing impunity policies only serve to exacerbate the abuse of rights.