EXTERNAL AI Index: EUR 44/110/96
EXTRA 110/96 Fear of torture 18 July 1996
TURKEYHalil Can Do_an, aged 15
Esat Y_laz
_eref Han
Ay_e K_l_ç (f)
R_za Polat
Ismail K_z_lçay
Tayfun Koçak
Taylan Keskin
Ebru Arkan (f)
Servet Sand_kl_
Gökçen Kaygusuz
Hülya Deveci (f)
Levent Can Y_lmaz
Deniz Fidan
Ersin Atar
Müstecef Türkücü
Melek [family name not known]
Bülent [family name not known]
Pervin Abdalo_lu (f), released
Ayhan Sa_can (f), released
Amnesty International fears for the safety of 15-year-old Halil Can Do_an,
detained on 12 July 1996, and of others detained around the same time in a
police operation in Ankara which ran from 8 to 16 July. Reportedly the prosecutor
at Ankara State Security Court has authorized that Halil Can Do_an may be held
in incommunicado detention at Ankara Police Headquarters until 25 July when
he will be brought before a judge to be charged or released. It is not known
whether the other detainees are to be taken to court on the same date.
One of those detained, Pervin Abdalo_lu, is reported to have been released
on 18 July and was taken to hospital for examination. It is alleged that she
was tortured, including by electric shocks.
Halil Can Do_an was detained twice during 1995, in March and April, after which
he alleged that he had been tortured and ill-treated. On the second occasion
his allegations were supported by a medical report.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
People suspected of offences under the Anti-Terror Law can be held in police
custody without access to family, friends or legal counsel for up to 30 days
in the 10 provinces under State of Emergency in the east and southeast such
as Diyarbak_r, and for 15 days in the rest of Turkey. When not being interrogated,
detainees are often held in cramped, airless and insanitary conditions. With
no access to the outside world they are at the mercy of their interrogators.
Torture is often applied to extract confessions, to elicit information about
illegal organizations, to intimidate detainees into becoming police informers
or as informal punishment for assumed support of illegal organizations.
Torture methods include being stripped naked and blindfolded, hosing with
pressurized ice-cold water, hanging by the arms or wrists bound behind the
victim's back, electric shocks, beating the soles of the feet, death threats
and sexual assault.