NEWS CENTER - In the report accepted by the European Council, it was emphasized that ill-treatment in prisons in Turkey has increased. The report pointed out the ECHR's decision on Abdullah Ocalan and asked the EC to closely monitor these files “against the possible risk of ill-treatment."

 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted for a resolution noting that systematic torture and ill-treatment have been observed in some European prisons and police centers, and that Turkey is among these countries. The decision was accepted by receiving the votes of 66 of the 67 parliamentarians who participated in the voting at the ongoing general assembly meetings of PACE in Strasbourg. The other member abstained. Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair and People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) Party Deputy Berdan Öztürk also participated in the voting. Öztürk voted in favor of the decision.

 

TURKEY, RUSSIA AND AZERBAIJAN

 

According to DW's news; In the decision, it was noted that torture and ill-treatment have not yet ended across Europe, and that it has even tended to become systematized and/or generalized in some countries. Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey were given as examples of these countries. It was stated that complaints of ill-treatment in custody were received in many member countries of the Council of Europe.

In the section of the decision text regarding Turkey, it was stated that despite the official authorities' message of "zero tolerance for torture and ill-treatment", "torture and ill-treatment in detention and prisons have increased in recent years", and that this has "relegated to the background" the progress Turkey has made in the past in this field. It was stated that the decisions made by the Constitutional Court in recent years regarding the prohibition of ill-treatment were "satisfactory" and called on other national judicial bodies to implement this jurisprudence.

 

WHO PREPARED THE REPORT?

 

The detailed report that formed the basis of the decision was prepared by Cypriot Social Democratic parliamentarian Constantinos Efstathiou. In the report, the decisions of the cases brought to the agenda of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the torture and ill-treatment applied by the security forces, especially during the arrest, detention, interrogation and dispersal of peaceful demonstrations in Turkey between 1993 and 2011, were reminded. It was noted that the process regarding the implementation of these decisions is on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 

 

Referring to the ECHR's decisions on Abdullah Ocalan, who is held in absolute isolation in Imralı Type F High Security Prison, and prisoners Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala, the Council of Europe was asked to "closely monitor these files against the possible risk of ill-treatment."

 

CPT REPORTS

 

The report also mentioned the observations and findings of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Ill-Treatment (CPT). It was reported that the CPT's report published in 2020 regarding their visits to some prisons and police stations in Turkey in 2019 included findings that security forces used "excessive force and/or physical ill-treatment" against some individuals in custody.

 

COMPLAINTS ARE INCREASING

 

Pointing out that allegations of torture and ill-treatment originating from Turkey have increased since 2017, PACE reported that the reports regarding the periodic visits organized by the CPT to some prisons and police centers in Turkey in 2016, 2018 and 2021 after the July 15 military uprising have not yet been published.

 

According to CPT rules, the approval of the government of the relevant country is required in order to publish reports on these visits. However, the CPT also has the authority to make a statement if member countries do not comply with the observations and recommendations in the report.

 

In the PACE report, the inspection visits carried out by the CPT to prisons and police stations in Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Spain, noted that complaints of ill-treatment were received, especially during police interrogations.

 

CALL FOR MEASURES 'PUBLISH REPORTS WITHOUT PERMISSION'

 

In the adopted resolution, Council of Europe member states were called upon to take effective measures against torture and ill-treatment. These measures include making torture and ill-treatment specific crimes with proportionate and deterrent penalties, ensuring that the officials responsible for these crimes are held accountable, not applying a statute of limitations for these crimes, and conducting effective investigations, video recording of interrogations, confessions obtained through torture and ill-treatment not being accepted as evidence in courts, encouraging reporting of torture and ill-treatment within the police and in prisons and protecting whistleblowers and publishing CPT reports without state consent.