Turkish authorities launch probe against ill-treated jailed minors for ‘inciting riot’: Report

ANKARA

Up to 199 minors from the Pozantı jail in Adana to the Ankara Sincan prison in 2012 after a sexual abuse scandal at the facility. Hürriyet photo

Justice Ministry officials have opened an investigation into child inmates jailed in a juvenile prison, who were allegedly tortured and sexually abused, on charges of “incitement to riot,” a report revealed Jan. 9.

Twelve child inmates among those transferred to Ankara Sincan prison from a juvenile jail in Adana’s Pozantı district after authorities received serious allegations of degrading treatment are facing between three and six years of prison on fresh accusations, lawyers told daily Evrensel, the paper reported on Jan. 9.

Fresh allegations of torture at the Sincan facility had emerged last October, prompting the then-Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin to counter the claims.

Charges in the investigation launched by Ankara’s Juvenile correctional facilities directorate include “battering guardians,” “inciting a riot by refusing to attend a roll-call” and “voluntarily damaging tools.”

The investigation files have already been communicated to the jailed minors, lawyer Murat Yılmaz said, slamming a “cover-up tactic” behind the investigation.

“Victims are made suspects for clearing those who are guilty while those who should be suspects for torture charges are turned to victims,” Yılmaz said urging a comprehensive investigation into the prison facility’s officials.

Also last October, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published a report on their interviews with child inmates before their transfer from Pozantı in 2012.

The report stated that “the great majority of them made consistent and credible allegations that they had been victims of frequent and severe violence by fellow inmates in that establishment.”

The CPT also received a considerable number of consistent and credible allegations of deliberate physical ill-treatment of juvenile inmates by prison staff at Sincan Juvenile Prison, among others, and urged the authorities to urgently improve the conditions at juvenile prisons.