Over 5,300 incidents of torture in a single year

According to a recently released report by prominent human rights defender Sezgin Tanrikulu, a total of 5,381 incidents of torture were reported by the media in Turkey in 2022.

1280 incidents of torture took place in prisons, while in 80 incidents the victims were children, said Tanrikulu, a deputy for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and a lawyer by profession.

Tanrikulu's 2022 report on human rights violations also covers violations of the right to life, and documents 2,397 cases. Two were killed in police custody, two run over by vehicles of state forces, four due to "neglect by officials," 14 in hate crimes, 20 including four children in extrajudicial killings and shootings by state forces, 72 in prisons.

39 children and 327 women were killed by men in a single year, and 1,843 laborers were killed in the work place.

Violations of right to freedom of opinion and expression

52 journalists were convicted by Turkish courts in 2022, 94 detained, and 37 arrested, Tanrikulu said. 46 journalists were targeted in new lawsuits, 65 forcibly prevented from reporting.

While courts ordered bans on 2,283 online news reports, 311 people were arrested for voicing their opinion on the internet, 148 prosecuted for it, and 69 found guilty for having voiced their opinion.

A total of 544 protests and mass gatherings were targeted by the police in the course of the year, while 128 gatherings in 28 provinces were banned. 117 people who participated in these were convicted, and a further 270 were subjected to criminal investigations.