Tweets of torture in Turkey on Twitter are banned by the judiciary

Turkey’s judiciary has blocked access to tweets on the facts of torture in a country facing continued criticism over its human rights record.

Last week, a Turkish judge blocked access to hundreds of tweets and Twitter accounts that reported incidents of torture in the country or identified government officials accused of torture at the request of the General Security Directorate on behalf of the Interior Ministry.

The banned tweets include posts on the Turkish account of Swedish news site Nordic Monitor that refer to official statements made by defendants before a court and a retired army officer who admitted on television that he tortured suspects.

A Turkish court had previously made a similar decision regarding the same tweets at the Nordic Monitor account.

Although the government officials mentioned in the blocked tweets are army officers, prosecutors, and intelligence officers, the ban request came from the Turkish Interior Ministry.

According to the Nordic Monitor, the ministry filed a court request on October 8 demanding the blocking of 361 tweets and 231 Twitter accounts that it says depict torture in Turkey.

The ministry claimed that the leaflets would undermine national security and have a negative impact on society, including provoking public discontent.

In its complaint, the Ministry said that these propaganda tweets demoralize officials of the intelligence agency, the Turkish Armed Forces, judicial authorities and police officers.

Within 24 hours of the Ministry’s request, the Court decided to block access to hundreds of tweets received in the petition.

It is not known how the court verified all of these messages during this time period as many tweets are old and no urgent decision was needed.

The court noted a decision by the Constitutional Court that it would not be legally right to ban personal Twitter accounts without taking statements from suspects; however, it has banned many accounts.

One of the banned Nordic Monitor tweets is about Mustafa Manga, whose name was revealed in court testimony by a gendarme officer who was tortured and ill-treated for days when he refused to sign a fabricated testimony.

Another tweet from a Nordic Monitor says a woman was forced to abort after being raped in a police jail. The letter was a quote from one of the witnesses, Lt. Abdul Wahab Burke, before the bench of a court in Ankara.

Nordic Monitor noted a dramatic increase in incidents of torture in Turkey since the failed coup in 2016. Solitary confinement and enforced disappearances have returned.