DİYARBAKIR - Sick prisoners, who cannot even recognize their relatives, are either released on the verge of death or come out of prison in a coffin. In the last 6 years, at least 103 of the more than a thousand sick prisoners, who were not even given the right to say goodbye to their families, lost their lives.

 

Some can't see, some can't walk, some can't hear, some live with a missing limb, and some don't even recognize their relatives on the other side of the window inside those four walls... These people are sick prisoners sentenced to death in Turkish prisons. Despite the worsening of their health with each passing day, they are either released on the verge of death or their dead bodies are handed over to their families in a coffin.

 

In prisons, where human rights violations have increased during the coronavirus (Kovid-19) pandemic, sick prisoners health is deteriorating day by day. According to the 2020 report of the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are currently 1,605 sick prisoners, 604 of whom are seriously ill. 249 of these sick prisoners are women. Considering the unregistered applications to the İHD, this number is thought to be higher. 

 

YOUR HEART IS A TICKING BOMB...

 

The prisoners many of whom are imprisoned for political reasons and sentenced to aggravated prison sentences, are fighting for their lives. Heart, blood pressure, cancer, chronic diseases, kidney failure, diabetes, amnesia, vision loss, disabilities, paralysis, psychological problems... These are just a few of the health problems that prisoners experience. The prisoners are fighting against these diseases on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are struggling against the deteriorating prison conditions.

 

These prisoners whose basic rights in prisons are suspended due to coronavirus are examined by the doctors in five minutes and sent back to prison. And as this is not enough, these prisoners are put in quarantine alone for two weeks due to the pandemic.

 

THEY COULD NOT EVEN SAY GOOD-BYE TO THEIR FAMILIES

 

Despite some international conventions, of which Turkey is a party, prisoners who have problems in accessing health are not released persistently despite their very serious illnesses. The release of the prisoners are prevented either by the hand of the Forensic Medicine Institude (ATK) or the prosecutor's office. Even a prisoners whose both hands are missing is held persistantly in prison. The prosecutor's office continues to ignore the ATK reports proving these prisoners can not maintain their basic needs. 

 

Ergin Aktaş, who lost both of his hands and has COPD, and Mehmet Emin Özkan, 83, who has been in prison for 26 years and cannot walk, hear or see, are just two of these prisoners. The courts and government officials are blind, deaf and dumb in the face of human rights organizations and families' demand for "at least the right to say goodbye".

 

The prisoners, who were released due to the pressure of the public and human rights organizations, died a short time after their release. The latest example of this is Mehmet Ali Çelebi, 70, a cancer patient. Çelebi, who was released from Sincan Prison on 25 August, died 10 days later in the hospital where he was being treated. According to the 2020 report of the İHD, 16 seriously ill detainees died in prison, and 5 died shortly after their release. In the first 3 months of this year, 2 seriously ill prisoners died in prison and 1 died shortly after being released. Again, according to the March 2018 report of the İHD, 3,500 sick prisoners lost their lives in the last 17 years.

 

According to the data we have compiled from 2016 to the present, at least 103 detainees have died in the last 6 years.