‘Turkey coup attempt detainees tortured’

Human rights group Amnesty International said Sunday it had “credible evidence” of the abuse and torture of people detained in sweeping arrests since Turkey’s July 15 coup.

The London-based group claimed some of those being held were being “subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, in official and unofficial detention centres in the country”.

In Turkey, a senior official denied Amnesty’s claims and vowed that Turkey would uphold human rights.

“The idea that Turkey, a country seeking European Union membership, would not respect the law is absurd,” the official said.

“We categorically deny the allegations and encourage advocacy groups to provide an unbiased account of the legal steps that are being taken against people who murdered nearly 250 civilians in cold blood.”

Since the failed coup, a total of 13,165 people have been detained, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Saturday. This included 8,838 soldiers, 2,101 judges and prosecutors, 1,485 police officers and 689 civilians.

At least 123 generals and admirals have also been jailed, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

Amnesty said it had received reports that the police in the capital Ankara and Istanbul were holding detainees in “stress positions” for up to 48 hours.

Meanwhile, Turkey readied Sunday for its first cross-party rally to condemn the bloody coup attempt against President Erdogan as his government pressed on with a purge of suspected state enemies.

The mass pro-democracy event, to be held under tight security on Istanbul’s iconic Taksim square from 1500 GMT, was called for by the opposition group, the secular and centre-left Republican People’s Party. But to signal patriotic unity, it will be joined by Mr Erdogan's Islamic-conservative AKP, whose followers have turned city squares red with seas of Turkish flags every night since the failed putsch.

Mr Yildirim tweeted that “this country’s Turks, Kurds, Alevis” and supporters of the major opposition parties “united together and gave the lesson needed to the putschists”.