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Yet another news story relating to severe human rights violations against a political prisoner in Turkey has surfaced, on this occasion from Patnos L-Type Prison in the Kurdish-majority city of Ağrı (Agiri) in eastern Turkey.
Mizgin Kayıtbey, a woman political prisoner in Patnos L-Type Prison was first verbally, then physically, assaulted by a group of 30 male guards, ANF reports.
After the lynch-styled attack by the guards, Kayıtbey lost consciousness and was hospitalised, but before her treatment at the hospital was finalised, she was returned to the prison. Kayıtbey shared more information about the attack she was subjected to as she was being transported to the court for a hearing relating to her ongoing trial.
“I have a broken bone as well as cuts, bruises and still bleeding wounds on my body,” she told her family during her weekly phone call to them. Kayıtbey’s family has applied to Turkey’s Human Rights Association (IHD) to assist it in reporting this serious violation of human rights in Patnos L-Type prison. The family is seeking legal support in order to ensure that all state officers who perpetrated this form of torture can be brought to justice.
It has also been reported that human rights defenders of the IHD will visit Kayıtbey this week to closely monitor her situation as her state of health is still critical.
Four seriously ill prisoners, Mustafa Akyol, Kinyas Gülcan, Takiyettin Özkahraman and Ali Boçnak lost their lives last year in Patnos L-Type Prison.
Known as one of the most notorious prisons in Turkey for a number of years, Patnos L-Type Prison is currently a focus of attention for human rights defenders in the country who have noted the extremely negative attitude of the prison administration towards political prisoners, the constant assaults and insults directed against prisoners and the countless practices against human dignity such as naked body searches as well as forcing prisoners to stand up during the daily prison count-down by the guards.
According to IHD’s 2020 report on the violations of rights in Turkey’s prisons, a prisoner named A.A. who is jailed in Patnos L-Type Prison reported that the tap water was all muddy and prisoners have found all kinds of nauseating ingredients in their food including hair, worms and flies.
“Family members of the prisoners report that they witness bruises and marks of torture on the bodies of the prisoners when they visit them and prisoners are constantly being subjected to violence, assaults and insults reaching the level of systematic torture,” said Diran Dirayet Taşdemir from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in 2019 when she raised a motion in Turkey’s parliament regarding the violations of human rights that were taking place in Patnow L-Type Prison that required investigation.
