JINHA

ISTANBUL – After police arrested 10 women during an Istanbul occupation to protest the inaction in the case of juvenile women prisoners being abused in Izmir’s Şakran Prison, courts have ordered that all ten women be detained.

The women occupied the Family and Social Policies Ministry building in the area of Cağaloğlu to protest the ongoing Şakran Prison scandal and the state’s inaction on behalf of the pregnant minors being abused and kept in solitary confinement in the prison. Eight women from the Socialist Democratic Party and two women who were outside (now known to be journalists) were arrested.

The police violently arrested the 10 women, who chanted slogans against police violence as they were handcuffed behind their backs and violently loaded into a police van. Police arrested two journalists following the occupation from outside the building after harassing them with an ID check.

All 10 women refused to give testimony at the police station.

Local media have represented the women as “violent,” with headlines like Anadolu Agency’s “They forced their way into the Family Policies Provincial Building and beat seven workers.”

(ed/fk/cm)