Kurdish prisoner tortured by Turkish prison authorities after operation

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Burhan Kartal, a Kurdish political prisoner suffering from heart and kidney diseases in Erzurum prison, was tortured and beaten after he underwent angioplasty at hospital, Dicle News Agency (DIHA) reported.

His wife, Filiz Kartal, said that Burhan Kartal who was held under solitary confinement in Sincan Prison after the operation informed her of the torture on the phone:

My husband called me and said he was tortured and he had black wounds and bruises all over his body. I am extremely worried about the health of my husband. They are talking about a peace process. Then, why do they not see all that torture in prisons? I am calling out to the authorities. They must end the pressure and oppression in prisons right away.

48-year-old Burhan Kartal has been condemned to 12 years in prison and has completed 5 years of his punishment.

During his sentence in prison for 5 years, he has been held in several different prisons in the districts of Van, Bayburt, Erzurum and finally in Ankara, where he was tortured by the prison authorities.

Having serious heart and kidney diseases, Kartal was first taken to the hospital for treatment. When he objected to removing all of his clothes, he was transferred to Sincan Prison in Ankara, where he was severely beaten and tortured. He was also forced to spend a night in a dark cell under solitary confinement, his wife said.

The whole family of Burhan Kartal has been subjected to all atrocities of war and ethnic discrimination: His 3 brothers are in jail, his brother and sister are PKK guerillas, and his other brother was killed in 2011.

Kartal has 7 children living in the Kurdish district of Ağrı. His wife has asked for the attention of the public to the brutal treatment that Kartal has been exposed to despite his serious diseases.

The prison authorities we contacted refused to give information regarding the incident.