In terms of timely medical examination, a positive trend has been maintained in the temporary
placement isolator. It is also welcome that the number of medical rooms in temporary detention
facilities increased from 15 to 19 in 2019.
In their interviews with the Special Preventive Group, half of the detainees said that medical
examination was conducted in the temporary detention facility in a private environment, while the
rest of the detainees indicated that the staff of the temporary placement isolator were present at the
medical examination, or stood near the door and could hear the conversation. The Special Preventive
Group considers that conducting a medical examination in such a non-confidential environment
pushes the detainee, due to some fears, to hide the real origin of the injury. The above has a negative
impact on the thorough documentation of alleged injuries and timely provision of information to the
relevant agency.
The monitoring revealed that the notes made by the ambulance doctors are attached to the detainee's
personal files, even in the facilities where there is a medical room. In order to protect the confidentiality
of the medical information, it is important that in the facilities that have medical rooms, the documents
drawn up by ambulance doctors be kept with doctors of the temporary placement isolator.
In order to detect the cases of ill-treatment, it is important for the doctor to establish a connection
between the injury on the detainee's body and the method of receiving the injury according to the
detainee.230 Doctors should make efforts to obtain detailed and credible information in order to assess
more accurately whether the circumstances indicated by the detainee could cause the injury.
As in previous years, there are still cases when the detainee has injuries, but the above is not reported
to the Prosecutor's Office/State Inspector’s Office. In 2019, out of 449 cases processed by the Special
Preventive Group, information was provided to the above agency only in 98 (21.8%) cases.231 The cases
involved injuries in the detainee’s face and eye area.
The practice of documenting injuries by doctors of temporary placement isolators is still faulty. Based
on the analysis of the processed information, it can be said that, in most cases, the circumstances of
receiving the injuries (situation and method) are incompletely described or not described at all.232 It is
of particular concern to the Preventive Group that doctors assess the consistency between the injury
received and the circumstances of receiving the injury without describing or incompletely describing
230
Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, Istanbul Protocol, para. 104. “In formulating a clinical impression for the purpose of
reporting physical and psychological evidence of torture, there are six important questions to ask: [...] Are the
physical and psychological findings consistent with the alleged report of torture? [...],Does the clinical picture
suggest a false allegation of torture?”
231 110 (21.6%) out of 508 cases examined in 2018 had not been reported.
232 Circumstances were not fully described in 275 (78%) out of 351 cases. The circumstances were fully described
only in 76 cases.
85
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents