HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş had been unlawfully arrested and rushed to the Edirne Type F Closed Prison where his books and clothes were confiscated. The special treatment in place in the prison provides insight into why Demirtaş was taken there in the first place.

Edirne Type F Closed Prison is infamous for rights violations, torture and mistreatment and now has returned to the public radar with HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş transferred there. DTK Permanent Assembly member Aysel Tuğluk met with Demirtaş in the Edirne Type F Closed Prison that is nothing short of the prisons of the ‘80s infamous for torture'. Tuğluk later announced that the HDP co-chair was kept in a solitary cell with only a bed and a blanket. Tuğluk said the prison administration confiscated the books and clothes he had in his suitcase when he was admitted, that Demirtaş had faced the oppressive side of the prison administration right after he was admitted and was kept under the same conditions as prisoners with aggravated life sentences, in solitary confinement.

THE PRISON WARDEN'S LAW IS IN PLACE

Demirtaş hasn’t been allowed in the common areas yet, but there is word that he will be transferred to a normal ward in the coming days. The Prison Warden Haydar Ali Ak was appointed to Edirne two years ago, after making a name for himself with the torture in prisons in Bolu, Erzurum and Tekirdağ. As the mistreatment continues, practices only seen in this specific prison give an idea why Demirtaş was transferred there. Visiting families are put through layers and layers of discomfort in this prison, and it is banned to give clothes, books or any other objects to prisoners outside of the non-contact visits. During open visits, the prison guards stand where they can hear people speaking. There are slogans that praise “Turkishness” and writing that glorifies the Turkish identity on every corner of the prison. Social activities between wards were banned a while ago due to the State of Emergency. Writing letters in Kurdish is among the banned offenses.

The prison has been well overcrowded for some time now, and the prison guards make the papers frequently with news of torture. There are virtually no wards where the soldiers and prison guards have not conducted raids and attacked prisoners. Prisoners transferred there by exile have their belongings confiscated by the administration and are subjected to strip searches and other inhumane practices upon admission.

The most recent rights violations in this prison are:

- The prison guards raid the wards and batter the inmates. Whoever resists ends up in solitary confinement.

- In roll calls every morning, inmates are locked in the yard. They protest this by banging on the doors but are kept under lock for two hours and then taken back inside with the doors to the yard locked again.

- Political prisoners all have communication and visitation bans and solitary confinement. Hundreds of inquiries have been filed on over a hundred inmates and dozens have received solitary confinement punishments.

- During searches in wards, the inmates’ personal belongings are confiscated.

- 3 flood lights put up in the yard are directed towards the wards. Inmates can’t sleep due to the intense light and hang curtains on the windows, which are then torn out or confiscated by the prison guards.

- The inmates haven’t been allowed on visitation for a month. All social rights are taken away.

- Inmates aren’t taken to common areas and aren’t transferred to the hospital or the court when necessary.

- Books, newspapers and letters are confiscated.

- One inmate is thrown into solitary confinement cells every day, the inmates say this is a conscious aggressive policy.