VAN - Medya Aslan, a prisoner being held in Van Type T Prison, sent a letter to İHD and told that two wards of 16 people were merged despite the virus threat, that the sick prisoners aren't being taken to the infirmary and hygiene materials are not given to the prisoners.

 

Medya Aslan, one of the female political prisoners in the Van T Type Closed Prison, told the Human Rights Association (İHD) Van Branch about the rights violations in prison.

 

Aslan wrote a letter and said: "We wanted to write to you about the violations of rights and the arbitrary practices of prison management, especially with the coronavirus. On 03.02.2020, the managers came to the ward and asked us to vacate the room and said that our ward will be merged with another ward of 16 women. We left the ward. They confiscated our radios and books. They told us that they will not give our radios back, but they will examine the books and give back if they are appropraite. Yet, even though a month has passed, we haven't recieved our books back. When we requested our books, they told that they will not be giving them back after all. They banned getting books from outside. 

 

THEY DODN'T TAKE THE SICK TO THE INFIRMARY

 

A lot of our friends in the ward are sick. Even though we suffer from shortness of breath and coughs, they did not take us to the infirmary. It is said that because of the coronavirus we must stay away from crowds, but they merged our wards anyway. They don't even let us buy bleach with our own money. There are mothers older than 65 with chronic diseases in our ward. None of our problems is being sloved no matter how much we complain to the warden. We want you to adress the problems we have mentioned please."