Silivri Prison ‘meets international standards’

ANKARA

All newly built prisons, including the Silivri Prison complex where defendants in the Ergenekon coup plot case are kept, are in line with international standards, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said yesterday.

Those prisons were built according to standards on prisons that have been improved and published by international organizations such as the Council of Europe and the United Nations, Ergin said, adding that prisons in EU member countries were also taken as example in regards to architecture. Ergin also noted that as of Oct. 8, 2012, 5,976 convicts and 3,197 detainees were staying at Silivri Prison complex. His statement came in response to a parliamentary question from main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Turgut Dibek.

Some 65 detainees of the 274 defendants in the Ergenekon case are in Silivri Prison, including two CHP deputies, Mustafa Balbay and Mehmet Haberal. Engin Alan, a retired general and a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who was sentenced in September to 18 years in prison in the “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) case is also serving his sentence at Silivri Prison.