Gülan Ateş, the mother of Kurbani Özcan, who was reported to have been tortured in prison, started a "Justice Vigil" and said that her son was threatened by the Diyarbakır T Type Prison Director.
Gülan Ateş is the mother of Kurbani Özcan, a resident in Erzurum. The prisoner was exposed to torture by the guards in Diyarbakır No. 3 T-Type Prison. The woman claimed that her son was threatened with death by the prison director, and said that she came from Erzurum to the Courthouse in Amed. She started a "Justice Vigil" in front of the court.
Ateş said that her son had been in prison for 10 years and that she had not been allowed to meet him.
She said she came to Amed to have a visit with him, after a phone call in which the man told her about the threats. Ateş said that she received special permission from the prosecutor's office after the prison administration did not allow the visit, but even so she was not allowed to meet him.
Ateş said that her son told her that the prison director threatened him with death. “He told my son – the woman said – ‘Your mother will take your body from here.’"
The woman added that the phone call was cut off and that in a later phone call her son told her that he had been beaten and kicked by the guards.
The mother said that she had come to Diyarbakır to see her son and that she wouldn't leave until she had seen him.
25 stitches
Claiming that her son was given 25 stitches due to torture-related injuries, Ateş said: "They constantly punish my son with disciplinary sanctions. My son will go on a hunger strike against this harassment on Wednesday 31 August. He got 25 stitches on his body. I want my son's transferred to Erzurum. I will wait here until my request is met.”
Kurbani Özcan told his mother that he wanted to talk to a Mezopotamya Agency (MA) journalist when he learned that his mother was being interviewed. During the interview his mother had with the journalist, she put him through to her son, who said: "I and other prisoners are constantly tortured. I have attempted suicide many times because of these. Prisoners are being killed here. They are trying to kill me. They are killing the prisoners here. They are torturing us. We are being tortured by psychological pressure. They are beating us. During the torture, they insult me, they curse me. They threatened me with death. I tried to commit suicide. I am going on a hunger strike on Wednesday, indefinitely. I have no one left but my mother. "
