WAN - Kamuran Daşdemir, detained in Erzurum Dumlu High Security Prison No 2, said in a phone call with his family that the rights violations they are being subjected to have increased.

 

Kamuran Daşdemir, who is imprisoned in Erzurum Dumlu High Security Closed Prison No 2, said in a phone call with his mother Iran Daşdemir that the rights violations they have been subjected to have increased.

 

His mother Iran Daşdemir said, "My son told me that he sent petitions to the Parliament and the Ministry of Justice many times, but the prison did not send them to the necessary places. Also, the petitions written to the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament were not sent. They demand that lawyers, human rights organisations and politicians visit them to examine the rights violations in prison. Everything Kurdish and Kurdish is confiscated and the law has been set aside in the prison. My son and other prisoners want their voices to be heard."

 

Iran Daşdemir stated that her son has a hearing problem: "When my son was arrested, they sent me news via the mukhtar. When he was detained, they had tortured him beyond recognition. They put a black bag over his head and took him to Agirî (Ağrı). I went to see him 20 days after his arrest and my son did not recognise me. A few days after the visit he called me on the phone and said 'I was cold because I didn't recognise you, I apologise'. I told him 'you may have been cold and not recognised me, but I am a mother and I recognised you'. When my son was arrested, he and his friends were tortured in various ways. My son refuses to go to the hospital as a reaction to the rights violations in prison."

 

'NO BOOKS ARE GIVEN'

 

Noting that her son is held in solitary confinement, mother Iran Daşdemir said: "There is a practice of isolation against prisoners. When I spoke to my son on the phone, he stated that there is pressure and persecution on them. We send him books in Turkish and Kurdish, but they are not given to him. The authorities need to deal with this situation. We want MPs and lawyers to go to prison to end these rights violations."

 

'LET THIS BE THE LAST PAIN WE SUFFER'

 

Expressing their support for Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's call on 27 February, Iran Daşdemir said, "I want peace and equality. We have taken a step in the newly initiated process and now it is the turn of the state to take a step. I want freedom for all sick prisoners, especially Mr Öcalan. We are in favour of peace and justice now as we have always been. Let these pains be the last pains we suffer from now on."