Harsh sentences for Turkish guards convicted of torturing and killing an inmate may show Turkey no longer accepts torture, a human rights group said Thursday. Three guards and a deputy director at Istanbul's Metris Prison were
sentenced to life without parole Tuesday for causing the death by torture of inmate Engin Ceber, an activist with the Kurdish Association for Rights and Freedoms.
The case, tried before Istanbul's 14th High Criminal Court, is the first in which a Turkish court convicted a senior prison official for torture by guards under his command, Human Rights Watch said.
Ceber died in an Istanbul hospital Oct. 10, 2008, after being repeatedly beaten in police custody and in prison, Human Rights Watch said.
An autopsy report by Turkey's Forensic Medicine Institute concluded Ceber died of a brain hemorrhage as a result of blows to the body and head, consistent with torture.
"The authorities in Turkey have been notorious for protecting torturers," said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Human Rights Watch's Turkey researcher. "The Ceber verdict should signal that the Turkish justice system will no
longer turn a blind eye to torture and other ill-treatment," she said.
Besides the three guards and deputy director of Metris Prison, two other prison guards were sentenced to seven-year prison terms for torturing Ceber and two fellow activists, Ozgur Karakaya and Cihan Gun.
Three police officers were also convicted in the case.