Vision-impaired journalist, under arrest for 7 months, denied access to Braille books in prison
Date posted: February 7, 2018
Visually impaired Turkish journalist Cüneyt Arat, under arrest over alleged ties to the Gulen movement since July, last year, has said in a letter that he was denied access to Braille books as well as audio-described movies.
Arat was sentenced on Feb. 22, 2017 to 6 years 3 months in prison on charges of membership to the Gülen movement while also getting 10 months and 15 days of jail time for promoting a “terrorist” organization. He was put behind bars after an upper court upheld one of his convictions, on July 10, 2017.
“They have yet to give me my Braille books, audio-described movies and my talking clock,” said a script from his letter, published on his Twitter account on Feb 3.
Arat said he has 90-percent vision loss and that he had someone else to type the letter for him.
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Kamil continues. “‘If you don’t speak, we’ll bring your wife here and rape her in front of your eyes’, they said. Then they took me to a dark room and tried to forcefully insert a baton into my anus. When they couldn’t do it, they left. Maybe I will forget the other torture – but for the sexual part, it is carved into the dirtiest corner of my heart.”
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