PHYSICIAN COMPLICITY IN MISREPRESENTATION AND OMISSION OF EVIDENCE OFTORTURE IN POSTDETENTION MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS IN TURKEY

Between June 1994 and October 1995, representatives of Physicians for Human Rights studied the problem of physician complicity in torture (i e. misrepresentation and omission of medical evidence in postdetention examinations of detainees) in Turkey, The research consisted of a sur vey of forensic documentation of torture, interviews with individual p hysicians who examine detainees, analyses of official medical reports of detainees, and interviews with survivors of torture. Results from t he survey, interviews, and medical report analyses provide evidence th at torture of political and criminal detainees continues to occur in T urkey and that Turkish physicians are coerced to ignore, misrepresent, and omit evidence of torture in their examinations of detainees to ce rtify that there are no physical signs of torture.