MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – More than 100 prisoners held in Diyarbakır D Type Prison were transferred to No.1 and No.2 High-Security Prisoners located in the same campus in groups. Special practices were reportedly implemented against the prisoners during the transformation.  Mevlüde Meral’s son Mehmet Hüseyin Meral has been held in solitary confinement for 15 days. Meral told us that the tortures used in Turkey’s prisons in the 90s have been repeated. When Meral visited her son in prisons she saw the bruises and scars on the faces of the prisoners. She applied to the Human Rights Association (IHD) Diyarbakır Branch to write a petition to be sent to Turkey’s Ministry of Justice.

“Video cameras have been installed in the private areas of the prisoners”

“They (Wardens) have often insulted and tortured them (prisoners). They (prisoners) have faced everything since they were transferred. The prison administration has ordered the prisoners, saying, ‘You have to stand at attention, you will do whatever we say.' The prisoners have been told, ‘If you do whatever we say, you will take a breath in prison.’ Video cameras have been installed in the toilets, bathrooms, and common areas of prisoners in the wards. Isn’t that a shame? Aren’t those who being held in prisons human beings? They don't treat them like human beings. Our only demand is the immediate end of pressures on our children. They have been already behind bars, and they haven’t been properly given food and water,” said Mevlüde Meral.

“Greeting other mothers is forbidden”

Mevlüde Meral told us that she greeted other mothers during a visit but she was warned by wardens saying, ‘it is forbidden’. “Every day, they (wardens) take three prisoners in groups from the wards and beat them. There is no answer about what they beat them. When I visited my son in prison, I saw bruises on the face of my son and wounds in the ears of his friends. My son told me ‘I feel dizzy, I cannot see you.’ Today, I went to prison to visit my son. I saw other mothers and I wanted to greet them. One of the wardens shouted at me and said, ‘it is forbidden, don’t greet each other.' I shouldn’t have greeted other prisoners’ mothers. Even greeting someone is forbidden!”

“They should end torture”

Mevlüde Meral called for the end of torture against prisoners and she said, “Our children have been unjustly held in prisoners for years, they have also tortured our children. We have sought our rights and our children’s rights. We don’t accept the torture against our children. We demand the isolation and pressure imposed on our children to be lifted. They should immediately end this cruelty.”