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Violence Against Women: 10 Reports / Year 2003Section at Diyarbakir Police Headquarters (and this amounts to hundredsof persons) was recorded as having waived their rights of access to alawyer.” The CPT concluded that such a collective waiver was in theireyes “scarcely credible.” 67Turkish authorities still have recourse to Article 3(c) of LegislativeDecree No. 430 which allows them to remand prisoners, whose statementsare needed in the investigation of crimes, to the custody of thepolice and gendarmeries for renewable periods of up to 10 days. Duringperiods of remanded custody in police stations, detainees are deniedaccess to an attorney and contact with family. Under the authoritygranted by this decree, prisoners are said to have been held for up to 40days at police stations where they were subjected to torture and mistreatment.68As previously mentioned, pursuant to the October 2001 amendment ofArticle 19(6) the Constitution now requires in unambiguous terms thatnext of kin be notified without delay when a relative is detained:“Notification of the situation of the person arrested or detained shall bemade to the next of kin without delay.” This constitutional requirementwas implemented in February 2002 through a statutory amendment toArticle 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The new language ofArticle 128 reads: “A relative of the person apprehended or a person designatedby him shall be informed without delay, by decision of the prosecutor,of the person’s apprehension and of the order to extend the custodyperiod.” [emphasis supplied] The implementing legislation thus appears toeviscerate the Constitutional requirement of immediate notification byimposing an additional deliberative procedure, i.e. the decision of theprosecutor, rather than requiring automatic notification by the arrestingauthorities. Related to the notification requirement is the issue of recordingdeprivation of liberty. The Regulations on Apprehension, PoliceCustody and Taking Statements governs procedures at Turkish police stationsand gendarmeries for recording the fact of someone’s detention. Thetrigger for making an entry into a police station log book however,appears to be the fact of placing someone in a cell, rather than the fact ofdetaining someone at a police station. 69 This rule (Article 11 of theRegulations) implies that a detainee’s sojourn at a police station will gounrecorded to the extent that he is not placed in a cell, and indeed, maynot be recorded at all if he is released without having first been placed in364