Türkiye: Imrali prison must address serious violations of the right to contact family and legal representation

The country rapporteurs were Mr. Tuzmukhamedov and Ms. Maeda.

The country delegation was led by Ms. Kivilcim Kiliç, Ambassador, Director General for Multilateral Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Main issues discussed

The experts raised concerns about the dramatic increase, by up to 40%, of people sentenced to life imprisonment between 2019 and 2022 in Turkey.

Moreover, the CAT experts raised the unsatisfactory implementation of mandatory medical control in all police detention units and hospitals, in particular with regard to the confidentiality of such controls as law enforcement officials continue to be present.

The CAT experts expressed concerns about disciplinary restrictions on prisoners serving sentences, such as restrictions of their rights to contact family and legal representation. This mainly concerns Imrali high-security prison, about which civil society raised serious concerns regarding four prisoners. On a related note, they also raised concerns about the Law No. 5275 on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures of 2004, which imposes a series of restrictions on fundamental legal safeguards including meetings with lawyers and the seizure of documents exchanged between prisoners and lawyers.

The Committee against Torture also expressed concerns about cases of harassment of women in prison by guards. In this regard, the Committee reminded Turkey of the importance of the minimum standards set by the Nelson Mandela rules for the treatment of prisoners.

On another point, experts were concerned by cases of torture and enforced disappearance in secret detention facilities run by the intelligence services and the impunity that Turkish intelligence agents benefit from on the basis of article 6 of Law 6532.

In regard to the protection of human rights defenders, between 2019 and 2023, CAT denounced that more than 200 journalists were subjected to physical violence in Türkiye. In at least 97% of cases, the perpetrators were law enforcement officers. They pointed out that harassment of human rights defenders and journalists must not be used as a means of intimidation to discourage them from expressing themselves freely on human rights issues.

The CAT’s recommendations are available here. 


Follow-up recommendations:

The State party should provide information by 26 July 2025 on the implementation of recommendations regarding:

• the aggravated life imprisonment and the facilitation of contact of prisoners in İmralı Prison with their families and legal representatives
• the repeal of legislation brought into force during the state of emergency affecting the enjoyment of fundamental legal safeguards
• efforts to prevent and prosecute gender-based violence

Watch here (part one and part two) of the dialogue with the CAT.

Read our alternative report to the CAT and our latest blog on Türkiye (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 and part 7).