EU: The European Commission is sending a last-minute mission to Turkey this week to investigate allegations of systematic torture raised by a human rights group, an EU spokesman said yesterday.
Enlargement Commissioner Mr Günter Verheugen decided to despatch the fact-finding team less than a month before he is due to issue a report on whether Ankara has met the EU's political criteria for membership talks, after accusations surfaced during his tour of Turkey last week.
The torture probe added a new twist to Turkey's long quest for a green light from Brussels to start accession talks, just when Ankara appeared to have cleared the latest hurdle by agreeing to shelve planned legislation to criminalise adultery.
"One non-government organisation made serious allegations of systematic and continuing torture. Others said there were still some instances of torture but they were no longer systematic or officially sanctioned," spokesman Mr Jean-Christophe Filori said.
"In the light of these accusations, Verheugen said he would send a team to make final checks. We are not taking these accusations lightly and it's natural that we check information before publishing such an important report," he said.
EU leaders will decide in December whether to open entry talks with Turkey next year. It would take 10 to 15 years before Turkey could join, even if negotiations proceed smoothly.
EU officials said it was important to distinguish whether torture was still widespread and officially orchestrated or tolerated, or whether it was limited to individual abuses by members of the security forces and effectively punished by law.
An official of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said he was not worried about what the mission might find.
"Torture cases in Turkey are not institutional," AKP deputy chairman Mr Murat Mercan said. "The government has a zero tolerance for torture ... Some public officers may be involved in torture but it's not deliberate and it's not institutional."
The group that raised the allegations was the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, a group regarded by diplomats as credible and one that specializes in torture cases.
EU officials said the Turkish government had made progress in the last two years in banning torture of political opponents, notably in the mainly Kurdish southeast, and had begun to prosecute some of the perpetrators. But there were still reports of abuses in police stations.
The AKP confirmed earlier yesterday it had shelved plans to outlaw adultery that had infuriated women's rights groups and drawn criticism from several EU foreign ministers.