Prisoner subjected to ill-treatment by doctor after protesting against handcuffs during examination

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, MP for the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has disclosed yet another letter of complaint he has received from a political prisoner, in which she tells how she was subjected to ill-treatment by a doctor at Fatih State Hospital in Istanbul when she protested against being forced to undergo a medical examination while handcuffed.

Gergerlioğlu also made an application calling for the Committee on Human Rights in the Turkish parliament to investigate the matter, JinNews reported on Sunday.

In her letter, political prisoner Mesude Pehlivan described how she was subjected to ill-treatment in hospital.

Pehlivan said in her letter to Gergerlioğlu:

“I have been a cancer patient for six years and I have literally dozens of conditions that trigger each other. I was imprisoned at a time when I had just overcome cancer. But the doctor who examined my latest PET scan told me that there could be another tumour or an ulcer in my stomach.”

Pehlivan was also told that an endoscopy should be performed in order to diagnose the medical problem, but this was not done for many months.

When she was finally taken to hospital for examination, she was told by the soldiers that her handcuffs could be taken off only on the orders of the doctor.

When she tried to ask the doctor about it, the doctor responded roughly saying, “Shut up! I’m the doctor here, and I will do the talking.”

Pehlivan persisted in demanding that her handcuffs should be taken off during the medical examination, and the doctor said:

“You should pray thanks that you only have handcuffs. There are so many other things; aren’t you aware of them? They send those who keep going on about their handcuffs to the psychiatrist. If that’s what you need, I’ll send you to the psychiatry department.”

When Pehlivan said that doctors weren’t supposed to treat their patients so rudely, the doctor said, ‘I’m just telling you what happens.’

Pehlivan added in her letter that she is concerned for her safety if the same doctor is involved in her endoscopy operation.