First busloads of minors leave Pozantı detention center

A total of 200 minors are to be transferred to Ankara's Sincan Juvenile Detention Center before the weekend. The coaches transporting the minors to the Turkish capital are being escorted by gendarmerie and police vehicles.

The decision to remove the minors from the detention center was announced by Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin on Friday following the removal of four officials, including the deputy director of the detention center, from their posts.

In an interview with the Taraf daily published on Tuesday, a minor at the prison, F.G., said there was a notorious inmate, identified only as Özgür, at the prison who had supposedly sexually abused another inmate. F.G. related that on a number of occasions when inmates misbehaved, workers at the prison threatened to send them to stay in Özgür's cell. According to F.G., Özgür was later transferred to Mersin Prison.

Despite the controversy surrounding the case, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç commented on Monday that concrete evidence regarding rape or sexual abuse has yet to emerge.