Sixteen prisoners held in Bingöl M Type jail have been transferred to Sincan F Type Prison in Turkish capital Ankara in the last one week.

The transfer came after 18 PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) prisoners escaped from the jail on 25 September via a 70 metres tunnel they are believed to have dug over a year period. 17 of them were captured one day later, while the last PKK prisoner is still on the run.

Following the capture, fugitive prisoners were transferred to other jails, 13 to Van F Type prison and 4 to Sincan F Type Closed Prison in Ankara.

The transfer of four to Sincan prison was followed by that of 14 other inmates in Bingöl prison.

Two lawyers of TUHAD-FED (Associations of Help for Prisoners' Families Federation) and BDP visited the transferred inmates in Sincan prison on Wednesday.

According to the information received from lawyers, four fugitive prisoners were transferred to Sincan F Type Prison on 28 September and 14 others on 30 September.

The transferred 16 prisoners are yet facing repression in Sincan jail where they were subjected to "detailed search" -naked body search – soon after their arrival in the prison. Two among them, Şahin Biçimli and Bilal Demirdağ, were assaulted by wardens for objecting to the naked search.

The prison administration has launched an investigation against the inmates for chanting slogan during “detailed search”. Other prisoners in the jail have also been subjected to investigation for the same reason.

The transferred inmates have nothing in their cells for they were not enabled to bring their things from Bingöl to Sincan prison. They have also been denied some social rights including talking to other inmates and joining workshop activities on Tuesday.