AI: Turkey bulletin

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

er 2.20)
           id VT26387; Tue, 14 Nov 1995 23:25:00 -0800

------------ Forwarded from : Ray Mitchell <rmitchellai at gn.apc.org> ------------

+------------------------------------------------------+
+     AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION BULLETIN     +
+     Electronic distribution authorised               +
+     This bulletin expires: 15 December 1995.         +
+------------------------------------------------------+

EXTERNAL                                            AI Index: EUR 44/129/95

EXTRA 138/95      Fear of torture / Fear of "disappearance"10 November 1995

TURKEY            Abdulbaki ISIK, aged 56


Abdulbaki Isik has not been seen since 28 October 1995, when plainclothes
police officers came to his sister's home in the Sehitlik district of
Diyarbakir, grabbed him in front of the house, and took him away.  Despite
his son's inquiries to the authorities, Abdulbaki Isik's detention remains
unacknowledged.  Amnesty International fears that he is being interrogated
under torture and that he is at risk of "disappearance".

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 southeast and
for 15 days in the rest of Turkey. When not being interrogated, detainees
are held in cramped, airless and insanitary conditions. With no access to
the outside world they are at the mercy of their interrogators. 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.

Procedures laid down in the Turkish Criminal Procedure Code for the prompt
and proper registration of detainees, and for notification of their
families, are almost universally ignored. Lack of prompt registration and
notification is extremely distressing for the families of detainees, and
creates the conditions in which "disappearances" and torture can occur.

Any person suspected of supporting the PKK or any other illegal armed
organization is at serious risk of torture, "disappearance" or
extrajudicial execution. In 1994 there were more than 55 confirmed
"disappearances", and more than 400 people were killed in unclarified
circumstances. At least 20 cases of "disappearance" in police custody have
been reported in 1995 so far, two of them in Istanbul (see UA 82/95, EUR
44/46/95 and updates of 21 April and 19 May 1995).

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
+ Supporters of Amnesty International around the world are  +
+ writing urgent appeals in response to the concerns        +
+ described above. If you would like to join with them in   +
+ this action or have any queries about the Urgent Action   +
+ network or Amnesty International in general, please       +
+ contact one of the following:                             +
+                                                           +
+      Ray Mitchell, rmitchellai at gn.apc.org (UK)            +
+      Scott Harrison, sharrison at igc.apc.org (USA)          +
+      Guido Gabriel, ggabriel at amnesty.cl.sub.de (Germany)  +
+      Marilyn McKim, aito at web.apc.org (Canada)             +
+      Michel Ehrlich, mehrlich at aibf.be (Belgium)           +
+-----------------------------------------------------------+




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