17 June 2008 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES, İSTANBUL
İstanbul’s Maltepe Prison has confiscated cell phones, chargers and other materials after X-raying prisoners.
Six hundred prisoners were transferred from Bayrampaşa Prison to Maltepe Prison on June 6. Upon arriving at Maltepe Prison, the prisoners walked through a metal detector. Prisoners who set off the metal detector were sent to Kartal Lütfi Kırdar Hospital for an X-ray, which revealed that the prisoners were carrying cell phones, SIM cards and phone chargers in their bodies’ cavities. Doctors removed these devices and handed them over to the gendarmerie, which oversees prisons. Gendarmerie officials note they occasionally encounter prisoners trying to smuggle in cell phones and the like and that the metal detectors are an effective way to prevent such devices from entering prisons. The gendarmerie has filed an investigation into the prisoners caught transporting objects inside their body cavities.
