Prison guards tell prisoner: “There is no justice here, we will eliminate you”

Cumali Yıldırım, 29, was arrested while he was a university student in Kırşehir and sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in prison. He is in Afyon No. 1 T Type Prison.

Yıldırım was threatened by guards because he did not accept to be strip searched and refused a standing count. He had previously said that he feared for his safety.

Yıldırım called his family on the phone on 28 December and explained the rights violations he was subjected to.

Yıldırım’s older sister, Hacer Yıldırım, stressed that her brother’s safety was in danger.

Stating that her brother was subjected to torture, ill-treatment and threats, Hacer Yıldırım said: “My brother refuses to be strip searched and counted, and because of this he is taken to a cold isolation cell. After that, the guards said to my brother: ‘You are used to not giving a standing count, we know how to make you a man here. Don’t you know this is a torture nest?’ They threaten him like this, saying that ‘there is no justice here. We will destroy you’.”

Stating that the threats increased when a political prisoner wanted to use his legal rights against all these violations, Hacer Yıldırım added: “My brother said to me on the phone ‘Hagar, they want to eliminate me here. I hear them talking among themselves, they are saying, let’s destroy this one’. My brother says there is no safety and there is constant torture in Afyon. The committee convened 2 months ago, but the torture still continues. My brother said that if anything happened to him, the prison would be responsible. He asked us to file a criminal complaint with the prosecutor’s office.”

Hacer Yıldırım said: “Let the attacks and tortures in the prison stop. My brother has two or three years left to serve. Let the public see and hear the prisoners’ voices.”

Hacer Yıldırım also applied to the Mersin Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) about the rights violations and asked for legal assistance.