JINHA

İSTANBUL - A delegation of the CPT has recently carried out a two-day visit (28 and 29 April 2016) to the F-type High-Security Closed Prison on the island of Imralı in Turkey.

A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) recently carried out a two-day visit (28 and 29 April 2016) to the F-type High-Security Closed Prison on the island of Imralı in Turkey.

CPT said the purpose of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of the four prisoners currently held in the establishment and to review the measures taken by the Turkish authorities in the light of the recommendations made by the CPT after its previous visit to the prison in January 2013. In this connection particular attention was paid to the communal activities offered to the prisoners and the application in practice of their right to receive visits from relatives and lawyers.

At the end of the visit, the delegation held consultations regarding the findings of the visit with Bekir Bozdağ, Minister of Justice, and Enis Yavuz Yıldırım, Director General of Prisons and Detention Centres, as well as with other senior officials of the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs.

The visit was carried out by Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the CPT (Head of Delegation), Hans WOLFF, member of the CPT, and Michael Neurauter, Head of Division in the CPT’s Secretariat.

The chairman of the Human Rights Association Öztürk Türkdoğan stated that the visit is important. “They usualy make statement after visits. We applied them many times and we asked from them to not keep silent to this situation. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture of U.N. asked the situation from Turkey with question. In this sense, the visit of the CPT is important.

“The situation of Abdullah Öcalan is against the law. He has been deprived his legal rights. No ones have obtained any information from him for more than one year. The CPT has a big responsibility. Abdullah Öcalan is one of the prisoners those who are watched everytime by the CPT. Abdullah Öcalan has a positive effect on the Kurdish people and forces of democracy.”

(dc/gd)