Torture Statistics Rise, Attitudes Lax
Posted on August 20th, 2008 by Jenny White
click for link to poll results
More than 400 people reported being tortured or mistreated by authorities in eastern and southeastern provinces in the first six months of 2008, according to complaints received by a human rights organization…
The number of torture allegations in 2007 was 172, yet the number has already increased to 432 for the first six months of this year alone… Selahattin Demirtas, a Democratic Society Party, or DTP, deputy and the former head of the party, confronted Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin with the issue and was told that there is no torture and mistreatment of prisoners, [Human Rights Association Diyarbakir head Mehmet] Erbey said. (click for article)
So if only 36% of the people believe torture should be prohibited even though legally it is, where will we get the security personnel who’d refrain from doing it and the parliament to fuss over the reported illegal treatment?
I’d also worry about the statistics for the US for the same reasons. It unclear what the percentages there would change into if there were actual and sustained acts of terrorism on US soil.