Leyla Güven receives 11-day solitary confinement punishment in prison

Journalist Sabiha Temizkan, the daughter of Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Leyla Güven who is held in the Elazığ Women’s Closed Prison, visited her mother on January 11. Temizkan revealed that the Kurdish politician had been threatened by a guard in the prison.

“I met my mother. She told me that when she was taken out for vaccination, she was threatened by a male guard because she had her hands in her pockets. The guard named ‘Ismail’ told my mother to ‘take your hands out of your pockets’. When she objected, the guard threatened her by saying, “all right for you!’ My mother told me that the guard continued to threaten her after other guards and the 2nd Director of the Prison attempted to stop him. My mother said that “It was like he would physically attack me if the others did not stop him”. My mother added that she would file a criminal complaint about the incident that took place in a spot where the cameras captured it,” Temizkan said on her social media account.

Penalty for threatening a public official

The Directorate of the Elazig Closed Penal Institution (Disciplinary Board) ignored the guard’s threats against Güven and stated that the Kurdish politician acted contrary to the article which says that “the convict is obliged to endure the execution of his/her prison sentence and to act in accordance with the execution regime arranged for this purpose”. The disciplinary committee gave Leyla an 11-day solitary confinement punishment for “insulting or threatening the institution’s officials”.