IHDs Letter on Systematic Torture

While Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said torture in Turkey was not systematic, and added there were some individual cases, the Human Rights Association (IHD) argued protecting torturers was an evidence of systematic torture.

IHD members, who made a press statement in front of the Galatasaray Post Office, mailed a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The letter consisted of photographs of people, including some children, who were detained for legal and political reasons, and beaten by security forces.

Lawyer Eren Keskin, the deputy head of IHD, said the prosecutors, who decide there is lack of grounds for legal action in torture cases, judges who cause cases to expire, police who do not detain defendants in torture cases, and forensic medical experts who do not document torture, were all evidence that systematic torture was continuing.

Keskin said torture was continuing because torturers were being protected, and added that victims did not file complaints because they knew torturers would get away with what they did.

She argued that it was unacceptable that torture by state officials was investigated by another state institution, the Forensic Medical Institute. Keskin underlined that, according to the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, torture has to be documented by independent institutions.

692 people applied in six months

IHD, which said it investigated and made public human rights violations in an objective manner, added that a total of 692 people filed applications in the first six months of 2004, claiming they were tortured. (OG/YS/EA/YE)