Thousands of Turkey coup prisoners 'raped, starved and hogtied'- Amnesty

Turkey: According to reports coming from Amnesty International, Turkish troops arrested and imprisoned following the failed attempted coup by sections of the Turkish military are being raped, starved and denied water for days, it claimed.


More than 200 people were killed and over 1500 wounded during the failed coup that attempted to oust Turkish President Recep Erdogan on July 17.

According to human rights campaigners, majority of the 10,000 detainees are locked up in horses’ stables and sports halls, some hogtied in dreadful pressure positions.

Amnesty International had earlier in the week called for swift access to prisoners after the coup.

Amnesty says it has ‘credible evidence’ that Turkish police are keeping detainees in stress situations for up to two days, denying them food, water and medical treatment and in the worst instances some have been put through serious beatings and torture, including rape.

Amnesty International’s Europe director John Dalhuisen, said:

“Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week.

“Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse. “

Amnesty said it spoke to lawyers, doctors and a personnel on duty concerning the conditions in which detainees were being held in one of the detention facility.

They heard shocking reports of how detainees were been tortured and given ill-treatment especially at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall, Ankara Başkent sports hall and the riding club stables.

Two lawyers working on behalf of detainees in Ankara told Amnesty International that detainees claimed they saw senior military officers in detention being raped with a truncheon or finger by police officers.
According to reports from Amnesty, a person on duty at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall saw a detainee with serious injuries consistent with been beaten, including a large swelling on his head adding that the detainee who could not stand up or focus his eyes eventually lost consciousness.

In some instances detainees were given little medical aid, as police refused to let this detainee needed medical treatment in spite of the seriousness of his injuries.

The interviewee also heard one police doctor on duty say:

“Let him die. We will say he came to us dead.”

Several detainees had visible bruises, cuts, or broken bones and about 40 were so badly wounded that they could not walk as two were unable to stand.

A woman who was also detained in a different facility there had bruising on her face and torso.
Source: UK Mirror