Imprisoned Kurdish politician Gültan Kışanak subjected to torture

Gültan Kışanak, who was arrested on 30 October 2016 while she was co-mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, spoke about the torture she was subjected to. Gültan Kışanak, who attended her sister’s funeral in Elazig on 9 August, was tortured on her return to the prison. Since her imprisonment, the Kurdish politician has also lost her older brother and father.

Saliha Aydeniz, co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), who visited Gültan Kışanak, told Yeni Yaşam newspaper how Kışanak was tortured. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) submitted a complaint to the Ministry of Justice demanding an immediate investigation against those responsible for the torture of Gültan Kışanak after her funeral.

Kışanak couldn’t even take her medication 

Aydeniz said that the plan was for Kışanak to be taken from Kandira prison, where she was being held, to the funeral early in the morning and to return at 6pm. Therefore, she did not take any personal belongings with her, including her medication for diabetes and blood pressure. Despite this fact, after the funeral, Kışanak was taken to Elazig prison instead of Kandira.

Family and lawyers were not informed

Kışanak told Aydeniz that she was detained in Elazig prison in a very dirty and uninhabitable place like a storehouse: “I was detained in a dirty storehouse-like place with very difficult physical conditions. I was put in a place that was very harmful to my health. I was not able to meet the gendarmerie who then took me to Elazig prison. Neither my lawyers nor my family were informed that I was in Elazig prison. As they were not informed, lawyers came to the prison to meet with me, but they were told that they were not allowed to meet with me.”

The state’s treatment of the Kurds

Reacting to the torture, Aydeniz said that what happened to Kışanak was an indication of a policy of hostility against the Kurdish people. Aydeniz recalled that, according to the law, a prisoner who loses a relative has the right to be taken to the funeral: “While there is such a right, is it turned into torture. Kışanak was taken to the funeral after paying all the travel and other expenses for herself and the prison officers accompanying her, but this is presented as a favor. But it is not a courtesy, it is a right. This is the way this regime treats the Kurds.”

HDP demands an investigation

Aydeniz reiterated that Kışanak, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, was being held in a camp with poor conditions in Elazig and called on the Ministry of Justice to investigate this place. The HDP filed a complaint with the Ministry of Justice regarding the torture of Gültan Kışanak after her funeral. In the complaint, which demands an immediate investigation into the torture and ill-treatment, the following demands were made “We demand an immediate investigation, the identification of those responsible for the ill-treatment and torture and the officials who instructed them, and the initiation of an administrative investigation against them, as well as the filing of the necessary criminal complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”