'She pressed her knee to my neck, I couldn't breathe'

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Selda Karataş, who is on remand at Gebze Women's Prison in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, has sent a letter to bianet about the torture she suffered in prison.

This was her second letter after the first one was censored by the prison administration.

Karataş says in the letter that she filed a criminal complaint to the Gebze Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for torture and meltreatment and added a medical report after the torture to her petition.

She also said prison cameras recorded what happened and requested the prosecutor's office to examine the recordings.

When Karataş was brought to the İstanbul Anadolu Courthouse for her hearing on November 11, gendarmerie officers wanted to search her although she was already searched twice, Karataş says in the letter, adding that those who would search her didn't have jumpsuits and gloves.

When she told them that she was already searched, the officers responded, "Come here bitch, see how I'll search you now" and beat her, according to the letter.

A senior woman gendarmerie officer pressed her knee to her throat and continued to do so although she said she couldn't breathe and she eventually passed out for a short time, said Karataş.

As well as filing a criminal complaint, she also wrote petitions to the PArliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Civil Society in the Penal System Association (CİSST), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB). (AS/VK)