International Delegation detained in Turkey during fact-finding mission

MEMBERS OF AN INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION VISITING TÜRKİYE TO OBSERVE THE “PIT-TYPE” PRISON MODEL AND INHUMANE ISOLATION CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN DETAINED.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE DELEGATION MEMBERS DEMANDED!

Here is a very recent statement by the International Bureau of the People’s Law Office:

We have learned that members of the international delegation—consisting of lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders who traveled to Türkiye on February 18, 2026, to conduct on-site inspections of the newly implemented “Well-Type” (S, R, Y Type, and High Security) prison models and the severe isolation conditions—were detained this morning (February 19).

Following their meeting with lawyers from the People’s Law Office (Halkın Hukuk Bürosu), they were taken into custody on the street where the office is located and transported to the Migration Management Directorate for deportation.

The delegation members currently in detention and facing the threat of deportation are as follows:

Alejandra Matamoros Alexandrova, Lawyer, member of the Platform against Repression Barcelona (Spain)

Andrea Lucidi, Journalist, Visione TV (Italy)

Tatyana Desyatova, Coordinator of the Interbrigade in CRCF (Russia)

Dr. Nick Krekelbergh, Doctor of Bioengineering Sciences and representative of Zannekinbond (Belgium)

Jean Pascal Graziani, Representative of Supernova and AIF-France (France)

Fernando Garcia, Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)

As is well known, “Pit-Type” prisons are structures where prisoners are completely deprived of sunlight and social interaction, and subjected to severe isolation. This model is incompatible with the international “Mandela Rules” and constitutes an execution regime that violates human dignity.

Activities such as monitoring prison conditions and reporting rights violations are legal, democratic, and legitimate under Türkiye’s international obligations and its own constitutional guarantees. The detention and threat of deportation of delegation members—who are in the country solely to gather information and conduct on-site observations within a completely legal framework—is a clear violation of the law and a crime. This treatment of international observers is a blatant breach of the articles concerning freedom of expression and the right to seek justice under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which Türkiye is a party.

This attack on the delegation members is an attempt to intimidate and prevent the exposure of rights violations and inhumane isolation conditions in “Pit-Type” prisons to the global public, as well as to hinder internationalist solidarity.

We call upon all our friends, comrades, and human rights defenders to take a stand against this assault by the Turkish authorities, which aims to intimidate, suppress, and silence internationalist solidarity. We urge everyone to support the delegation members who are in Turkey for the purpose of internationalist solidarity.

The illegally detained members of the international delegation must be released immediately and unconditionally! Deportation proceedings must be halted!

End the isolation practices in “Pit-Type” prisons!

PEOPLE’S LAW OFFICE – INTERNATIONAL BUREAU