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ISTANBUL, July 29 (AFP) - Turkish police broke up two demonstrations in Istanbul Saturday and detained 48 people who were protesting against conditions in the country's prisons and upcoming inaugurations of new facilities, media reports said. In southern Istanbul, 22 demonstrators were arrested after they held an unauthorized protest against Turkish prison conditions, the Anatolia agency reported. Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) called the rally, CNN-Turk said. In the city's center, 26 people were arrested during a protest against the opening of so-called F-type prisons, facilities which limit the number of prisoners in each cell and which are due to begin service at the end of the summer. Inmates and human rights activists charge the new jails, designed to hold three people per cell, are inhuman because they isolate prisoners. A similar demonstration at the same spot on Thursday led to the arrest of 30 people. Turkey's crowded prisons, where up to 60 inmates are held in dormitories, are repeatedly the scene of mutinies and hostage-takings. Since Tuesday, inmates at the Bergama prison in southwestern Turkey have refused to allow their dormitory to be inspected following discovery of a tunnel 110 meters (yards) long. Justice Minister Himet Sami Turk called Thursday on detainees to cease their resistance and avoid incidents with security forces, which often violently suppress prison unrest. |
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