Following previous reports that they have credible evidence of Turkey torturing post-coup detainees, Amnesty International is doubling down on their concerns, calling for an immediate halt to all mistreatment of what is now in excess of 10,000 people arrested over the coup attempt.
The imposition of a state of emergency across Turkey has added to the concern, as it allows President Erdogan to extend the detention without charges period from four days to 30 days. This is greatly increasing the risk of those detainees being tortured.
Turkish prisons have a spotty human rights record in the first place, and since the coup a lot of the detainees aren’t even being held in formal prisons, but rather are in makeshift “detention centers” set up after the failed coup, with images repeatedly showing large numbers of bound men sitting on the floor of a single room surrounded by guards.
Lawyers have reported seeing detainees brought in to by interrogated by prosecutors already covered in blood, with reports that a number of detainees have been raped in custody as part of the increasingly violent effort to get people to talk.