Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area his return to Greece. He was arrested on arrival and detained at the Athens airport detention centre for two weeks. In that period he was taken to the Turkish Embassy. Afterwards, he was told that the Turkish Republic had accepted to take him back. His expulsion was postponed after his lawyers from the Greek Council of Refugees appealed to the Council of State against the decision to “interrupt” the examination of his case. H.B. provided evidence to support his claims of the following nature: • A medical report issued by the Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture in Greece, 36 which confirmed that the physical symptoms noted by the Centre’s doctors were consistent with the type of torture he had described being subjected to in prison. • A series of news reports publicized at various points since 2001 on the prison protests, identifying H.B. as one of the protesters and detailing the events that led to his self-inflicted burning. • A series of documents issued by Turkish prison authorities and Courts confirming H.B.’s conviction for his membership of the said party and imprisonment. Amnesty International representatives met with H.B. in January and received the following account of his treatment in Turkey: H.B. is of Kurdish origin and since 1994 had been a member of a party which is banned in Turkey (DHKP/C). He was imprisoned between 1995 and 2002 in various locations around Istanbul, some of which were “F-type” prisons. Amnesty International has on numerous occasions expressed concerns about the isolation conditions in “F-type” prisons in Turkey as well as concerns related to the killings and torture of prisoners during transfers to “F-Type” prisons in the Operation “Return to Life” in December 2000. 35 H.B. said he was tortured while in prison on various occasions and had gone on hunger-strike in protest about the living conditions in the prison. During the clashes with police authorities that ensued due to the widespread protest of political prisoners in “F-type” prisons across the country that escalated in November 2002, H.B. set himself alight and suffered serious burns all over his body (65 per cent of his body surface). As a result, he was allowed to convalesce in hospital while a new arrest warrant was issued by the Turkish authorities because of his role in the protest – it was at this time that he escaped to Greece. 20 In light of this evidence, Amnesty International is concerned about the reasoning of the Board’s decision at first instance. In particular, the organization is concerned about the lack of clarity provided in the Board’s statement regarding the non-substantiation of the applicant’s claims through the evidence provided. The organization believes that the evidence provided by the applicant to the organization, and which he claims to have made available to the authorities during their examination of his application, leads to the strong presumption that should he be returned to Turkey he would be at risk of torture, and persecution. Amnesty International is aware that members of the specific organization, which played a major part in the 2001-2002 protests against detention conditions in “Ftype” prisons (and in which H.B. actively took part), have in recent years successfully sought asylum in a number of EU member states. On this basis, Amnesty International believes that the decision of the authorities to forcibly return H.B. to Turkey upon his return from 35 Turkey: Call for immediate steps against isolation in "F-Type", AI Index: EUR 44/024/2002; Turkey: "F-Type" prisons - Isolation and allegations of torture and ill-treatment, AI Index: EUR 44/025/2001. Amnesty International 5 October 2005 36 This Centre is explicitly mentioned in PD 61/99 as one of the institutions from which authorities may request information relevant to the claims under consideration. AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005