( Cihan ) - Torture continues to be practised with a "culture of impunity" in the Turkish criminal justice system and hardly anybody is ever held to account for it, according to Amnesty International.
In a severely critical report published on Thursday, the human rights group said the culture of impunity allowed Turkey's police and gendarmerie to escape accountability. It also enabled the country's courts to disregard medical evidence about the use of torture and accept statements allegedly extracted under torture as admissible evidence.
Government ministers claim to have adopted a "zero tolerance" stance on torture and insist there have been improvements to the criminal justice system in recent years.
Amnesty does not dispute the improvements, noting a fall in the incidence of torture in police custody. But its report suggests there is still a long way to go before Turkey shakes off a reputation for the systematic use of torture on suspects in custody that it acquired after a military coup in 1980 and the subsequent battle with the PKK terrorist organization in south-east Turkey.
The report says the government's commitment to zero tolerance cannot be regarded as sincere and effective "until real steps are taken to address the persisting issue of the failure to punish officials who violate the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment."
The new report examines the factors contributing to the impunity for law enforcement officials, including administrative delays, failings in court procedures and intimidation of human rights defenders and journalists. The report draws attention to the absence of an independent body which can impartially and effectively investigate human rights violations by state officials and the lack of centralized data collection of human rights violations committed by the security forces. The report also found that although reports of torture and ill-treatment in police custody have decreased, they remain frequent. The main findings in the report include:
-- Torture and ill-treatment, including during unofficial detention, during and after demonstrations, in prisons and during prisoner transfer;
-- Cases of ongoing trials in Turkey where statements allegedly extracted under torture constitute a central part of the evidence but where the court has ruled such evidence admissible;
-- The refusal of courts to recognize independent medical evidence in torture or other ill-treatment cases. The courts usually only accept evidence provided by the Forensic Medical Institute, which is institutionally bound to the Ministry of Justice;
-- The re-introduction of a controversial provision in the revised Law to Fight Terrorism which fails to make explicit that the use of force should be strictly necessary and proportionate and that the use of lethal force is only permissible when "strictly unavoidable to protect life";
-- The lack of progress in investigating fatal shootings by security forces that are not part of an armed clash and may amount to extrajudicial killings.
Amnesty International welcomes the Turkish government's declared commitment to a "zero tolerance for torture" policy and to the protection of human rights. The organization has noted that there are fewer reports of torture and ill-treatment in police custody and that the safeguards in the protection of suspects against ill-treatment during their apprehension, detention and interrogation have been improved.