UN expert says: Torture and abuse ′widespread′ in Turkey following July coup bid

The UN's special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, told reporters in Ankara on Friday that measures taken in Turkey following the July coup attempt had created an "environment conducive to torture."

"Testimonies received from inmates and their lawyers suggest that in the days and weeks following the failed coup torture and other forms of ill treatment were widespread," he said.

Melzer's made the comments after a six-day tour of Turkey to investigate allegations of torture. His visit comes one month after US watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Turkish police of torturing detainees arrested in connection with coup attempt.

The UN rapporteur also cautioned that Turkey's prisons and holding cells were often overcrowded: "Most facilities visited were overcrowded, with occupancy ranging from 125 to more than 200 per cent of the actual capacity." However, Melzer also noted that, after visiting facilities in Ankara, Diyarbakir, Sanliura and Istanbul, the overall conditions were generally satisfactory.

Recent legislation and statutory decrees passed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had created a "climate of intimidation," he said, discouraging victims from filing complaints or speaking out about their abuse.

"Holding cells, currently keeping individuals for up 30 days without any access to fresh air, are not suitable to detain anyone for more than 48 hours," Melzer said.

Sweeping security measures adopted as part of Turkey's state of emergency, which was extended by 12 weeks in October, mean that people are held in custody without judicial review for up to 30 days and without access to a lawyer for five days, according to Melzer.

"Worldwide experience shows us that it is precisely in the first hours and days after arrest that the risk of abuse, including torture and other forms of ill-treatment, is highest," he said, urging the Turkish government to live up its declared "zero-tolerance" policy on torture.

Read more: UN expert: Torture and abuse ′widespread′ in Turkey following July coup bid | News | DW.COM | 02.12.2016

Morality begins at home: There Is no justification for killing, terrorism, collateral damage, torture or murder in any way or form

The Bible, Koran, and the Torah all explicitly mention : THOU SHALL NOT KILL

RE:. ISLAM: "Terrorism or hirabah is forbidden in Islamic law, which groups it with brigandage, highway robbery and extortion rackets– any illicit use of fear and coercion in public spaces for money or power. The principle of forbidding the spreading of terror in the land is based on the Qur’an (Surah al-Ma’ida 5:33–34).

‘Anyone who disturbs free passage in the streets and renders them unsafe to travel, striving to spread corruption in the land by taking money, killing people or violating what God has made it unlawful to violate is guilty of hirabah .

RE: JUDAISM : ” murder is "not the way of the Torah," declared Rabbi Lau in sharp condemnation of the murder, which is thought to have been an act of "revenge" for the murder of three Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha'ar by Hamas terrorists on June 12 this year.

RE CHRISTIANITY: "Even before the codification of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai the murder of other human beings was wrong (Genesis 4:8-12; 4:23-24; 9:4-6; Exodus 1:16-17). While on earth, Jesus spoke out against murder (Matthew 5:21-26; Mark 10:17-19).

We also see in the writings of Paul (Romans 1:18, 29-32; 13:8-10; Galatians 5:19-21), James (James 2:8-11; 4:1-3), Peter (1 Peter 4:15-16) and John (Revelation 9:20-21; 21:7-8; 22:14-15) that murder is wrong."

BOTTOM LINE:  there is no moral justification for murder, killing, terrorism, capital punishment, military "collateral damage",  or even for that matter euthanasia.

The pictures below are only a tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately man is his own worst enemy and it only seems to be getting worse.

Ryan Lanza who shot  and killed 20 elementary school children and his mother at Sandy Hook CT, USA

Palestine victims after deadly Israeli Gaza bombing:

ISIS mass executionsions 

US Airforce "collateral damage: "Drs without borders" hospital Afghanistan

Turkey, Ankara more than 130 casualties bomb explosions

 EU-Digest

Poll: 80% of EU-Digest readers consider torture unacceptable to extract information from prisioners

An EU-Digest poll held from last year December 15 to January 16 of this year found that 80% of EU-Digest consider torture an unacceptable method of interrogation of prisoners.

Our new poll which will run through February 16, 2015 asks the question: "What should be done to EU citizen Jihadists returning home from serving in foreign military activities."

EU-Digest

EU-Digest Poll on Ukraine election by pro-Russian dissidents shows 50% consider the election legitimate

The latest EU-Digest Poll open to all its readers from the 14th of November  through the 14th of December on the political legitimacy of Ukraine's recent  pro-Russian dissident election showed  the following results.(see illustration)

On the question if the Russian Ethnic population had the right to self determination 50% of those polled said they did.

This month poll, open through January 15, 2015, focuses on torture.

Is torture an acceptable method to extract information during interrogations of suspects?

This poll question is being asked in light of a report from the US Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA's interrogation techniques after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which details the methods the agency used against terrorism suspects.

The report says the techniques were ineffective, a point the agency disputes.

EU-Digest

Torture USA: “Corrupt, toxic and sociopathic”: Glenn Greenwald unloads on torture, CIA and Washington’s rotten soul - by Elias Isquith

It took years until the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report — which shows not only that the CIA’s torture regime was larger and more vicious than understood, but that the agency repeatedly lied about it to the White House and Congress — was finally released to the public.

But it only took hours before President Obama was once again urging the nation to look forward, not back. “Rather than another reason to refight old arguments,” read a White House statement, “I hope that today’s report can help us leave these techniques where they belong — in the past.” When members of the media asked whether that meant the White House considered torture to be ineffective, as the report claims, an anonymous official said Obama would not “engage” in the ongoing “debate.” On the issues of rape, waterboarding and induced hypothermia, apparently, reasonable minds can differ.

Glenn Greenwald, the Intercept’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and longtime critic of the war on terror, disagrees. “There’s no debate,” he told Salon. “Everything that we did,” he continued, “in terms of how we treated detainees, has [long] been viewed as morally vile and inexcusable and criminal.”

Greenwald has little doubt, however, that Washington will turn torture into yet another partisan squabble. It’s the go-to move, he says, when America’s political and media elite decide they’d rather look the other way. “That’s just the ritual Washington engages in,” Greenwald said.

Speaking with Salon from his home in Brazil (or at least we assumed as much, given the barking in the background) Greenwald discussed what surprised him about the summary, what we still don’t know, why expressions of shock and horror from Congress are disingenuous, how President Obama is culpable, too, and why America’s leaders are “sociopathic.” Our conversation is below(click on link below)  and has been edited for clarity and length.

Read more: EXCLUSIVE: “Corrupt, toxic and sociopathic”: Glenn Greenwald unloads on torture, CIA and Washington’s rotten soul - Salon.com