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Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee visits prison on the island of ImralÄ± (Turkey)

01 February 2010 17:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A delegation of the Council of Europeâ€™s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) recently completed a two-day visit to Turkey (26 and 27 January 2010), APA reports quoting Council of Europe web-page.

The delegation visited the F-type High-Security Closed Prison on the island of ImralÄ±, in order to examine the conditions under which Abdullah Ã–calan and other inmates of the establishment were held. Particular attention was paid to communal activities offered to the prisoners and the application in practice of the prisonersâ€™ right to receive visits from relatives and lawyers. All the prisoners were interviewed by the delegation.

The visit was carried out following the recent setting-up of a new detention facility on the island and the transfer to that facility of five additional prisoners from other prisons.

In the course of the visit, the delegation met Sait GÃ¼rlek, Chief Public Prosecutor of Bursa, and Yahya Ã–zkÃ¶k, Enforcement Judge responsible for ImralÄ± F-type High-Security Closed Prison.

The visit was carried out by Mauro Palma, President of the CPT (Head of delegation), Marc NÃ¨ve, lawyer and CPT member in respect of Belgium, Jean-Pierre Restellini, specialist in internal and forensic medicine, CPT member in respect of Switzerland. They were assisted by Timothy Harding, psychiatrist and former Director of the University Institute of Forensic Medicine, Geneva, and Michael Neurauter, Head of Division, of the CPTâ€™s Secretariat.