Human rights violations against prisoners in prisons continue. The release of prisoners, particularly those who are ill and have been held for over 30 years, is being blocked. 

 

 

Newroz Uysal Aslan, People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party Şirnex (Şırnak) MP and Member of the Parliamentary Justice Committee, stated that problems in prisons are continuing to escalate. Highlighting that Turkey’s prison system has deteriorated since Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan brought to Turkey in 1999, she said that mechanisms aimed at breaking the will of political prisoners through pressure have increased, with prisons gradually being cut off from the outside world. 

 

Noting that many issues, such as the postponement of releases and the failure to release ill prisoners, are still ongoing, Newroz Uysal Aslan said that alongside the denial of the right to medical treatment in various types of prisons and the increase in isolation through exile to cities far from their families, there has also been a rise in suspicious deaths and suicides. 

 

‘POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE PART OF THE KURDISH ISSUE’

 

Stating that prisons are a consequence of the Kurdish issue, and both a part of and a factor in it, Newroz Uysal Aslan said: “These prisoners are being held in prison and facing severe sentences simply for exercising their rights to democratic politics, freedom of association and freedom of expression.” 

 

Noting that if a step appropriate to the process is to be taken, violations against prisoners must be brought to an end, Newroz Uysal Aslan said that the state must urgently implement legal measures regarding prisons.

 

CHANGES TO LEGISLATION

 

Recalling that the release of ill prisoners has always been a matter raised even prior to the current process, Newroz Uysal Aslan emphasised that the existing structural problems and the current legislation and laws must be changed. 

 

She concluded: “The rights violations directed at political prisoners in a discriminatory manner, as enshrined in the legislation, must be stopped. Isolation prisons in Turkey, such as S-type, Y-type, high-security and F-type prisons, must be abolished.”