Handan Tufan / JINHA

IZMIR –In a new development in lawyer Canan Uçar's case against the 20 prison guards who attacked her on a 2012 visit to her clients in Şakran Prison, video recordings have vindicated Canan's claims, which guards long denied.

 The Şakran prison has become notorious for violations of human rights. In October 2012, Canan Uçar went to Şakran's T-type prison, in the Aliağa region of Izmir, to visit her client. When the lawyer objected to an error in the eyeball-scanning device, 20 prison guards descended on her, punching and kicking her, as new video records show.

The Aliağa Prosecutor saw testimony from both the guards and Canan. Guards claimed that Canan verbally attacked and insulted them. The case remained unresolved, with the prosecutor attempting to open a case against Canan herself. Canan says she did indeed call the guards "powerless" when they attacked her, but that their extreme reaction demonstrated their masculinist attitudes.

"These guards need to be able to control themselves," said Canan. "I'm a lawyer. I know my rights. If they behave like this to me, how do they behave to the families coming to visit the prisoners?"

(fk/cm)