PodcastTurkish prosecutors drop investigation into guards' death threat against inmate
Turkish prosecutors have decided not to open a case against guards who reportedly threatened an inmate with “destroying him should he not commit suicide.”
Hacı Bişkin / DUVAR
Turkish prosecutors have decided not to take any action with regards to a criminal complaint detailing how an inmate in the eastern province of Elazığ had been threatened by guards.
Edibe Temel met with his son İbrahim Temel, 34, in the Elazığ prison in April last year. During the meeting, İbrahim Temel told his mother: "They threw me in the cell. I was beaten. The guards told me, 'Have you net yet committed suicide? If you do not commit suicide, we will destroy you.”
The conversation prompted Edibe Temel to a criminal complaint at the Elazığ Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
In her petition, Edibe Temel said that she was kept waiting for 45 minutes when she went to see her son and that her son was crying and had bruises on his face. She said that İbrahim Temel was being kept in a single cell.
Following the criminal complaint, the prison administration dispatched a letter to the prosecutor's office. In its defense, the prison administration claimed no recorded view in relation to the beating and that the mentioned personnel were not working on the relevant date.
The Prosecutor's Office decided not to proceed with the case, saying: "There was no evidence other than the abstract statement that the crime was committed, apart from the allegations of the complainant."
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