Faces of Manisa prisoners rendered unrecognizable due to torture, lawyer says
Date posted: October 8, 2016
The faces of people held in a Manisa prison have become unrecognizable due to heavy torture, Seda Tanrıkulu, a lawyer representing some of the prisoners, told the Turkish media.
“When I met with prisoners, there were bruises on the face of D.K., made by the boots of officials,” Tanrıkulu said.
Stating that prison guards reportedly banged the heads of prisoners on the wall with their hands cuffed behind their backs, she added, “The face of O.K. was unrecognizable due scars made by nightsticks.”
“Political [prisoners] are being subjected to torture,” said a man under arrest, in an obvious cry for help, as he was being forced into a police car after a medical checkup in Manisa province, earlier this week.
Apart from those already under arrest, Turkey has detained 51,000 people and arrested 27,000 others over alleged links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt, over the past two-and-a-half-months.
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Keep Incirlik, Extradite Gülen?
A true ally would not try to obstruct the international campaign against the Islamic State for the sake of a leader’s personal vendetta. To acquiesce to the extradition [of Fethullah Gulen] would be to signal that it’s open season to blackmail the United States.
Police pressure businessmen who sued Erdoğan over Hizmet remarks
On one day, police paid a visit both to the residence and workplace of the businessman, who requested to remain anonymous, even though there had not been any violation of law on his part. Asking arbitrary questions at the businessman’s residence, such as, “Why did you sue the prime minister?”, “What does your husband [the businessman] do?”, “Do you own the house or is it rental?” and “Do you have a car?”, the police asked for the mobile phone number of the businessman and left. The policeman said that they came from the Tepebaşı Police Station in Ankara.
Neither conservative nor democrat
Media campaigns, accusations and the prime minister’s statements about the leader of the movement are of unprecedented scale in Turkey. Filing records on sympathizers of the Gülen movement, removing them from public offices they happen to occupy, attacking its financial institutions; none of this has ever been seen in the past regarding Islamic movements.
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