Strasbourg, 30/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - At the end of a further visit to Turkey (from 18 to 21 April), the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Detainees (CPT) declared itself on the whole satisfied with the measures adopted by the Turkish Government to reform the penal system and emerge from the current crisis. The CPT welcomes the Government's adoption of bills: - amending Article 6 of the law relating to the fight against terrorism; - introducing prison monitoring committees; - creating judges responsible for the execution of sentences. It considers that these bills are bearers of an important reform of the prison system and would like them to be implemented rapidly.
The CPT also notes that the conditions of detention offered by the new F-type prisons lend themselves to no criticisms from a penal point of view. The CPT will, in future visits, examine how these possibilities, including the possibilities of education and training, are used in practice. In the immediate future, it urges the Turkish authorities to explain things to inmates so that they may accept the new cell system and thereby find a solution to putting an end to the hunger strikes. The CPT would also like early implementation of the review on the law on terrorism through a relaxation of the system of isolation by small groups implemented under article 16 of that law.