Lawyers Association for Freedom (ÖHD) Izmir Branch Co-Chair Özcan Sarıoğlu and lawyer Mehmet Selahattin Timur met with prisoners in Balıkesir Kepsut and Burhaniye prisons and Izmir Kırıklar and Şakran prisons in response to rights violations reported to the association by prisoners and their relatives. Prisoners told the lawyers about many violations of their rights ranging from the denial of their right to health care to handcuffed medical examinations, ward raids and denial of necessities. Prisoners told the lawyers one by one about their problems and asked for a solution.

 

Some of the violations reported by the prisoners are as follows:

 

BURHANİYE

 

* Visitors are 'harassed' and searched in Burhaniye Prison. Prison Director forces prisoners to stand up for roll-calls.

 

* Ubeydullah Yılmaz, who has COPD, cannot breathe at night due to his illness. The application for an oxygen device is not responded to.

 

* A prisoner named Mahsum is suffering from loss of strength in his shoulders as a result of an operation he underwent. He needs physical therapy, but is not allowed to receive it.

 

* When prisoners send letters to the Parliament and MPs about the problems they are experiencing in prisons, the prison administration is called by the Ministry of Justice and reacted to why the letters are being sent.

 

* In Burhaniye State Hospital, ophthalmologists, physicians and dentists are forcing prisoners to be examined in handcuffs. An ophthalmologist deliberately prescribes large prescription glasses for prisoners.

 

* Living supplies are arbitrarily confiscated.

 

KEPSUT

 

* Prisoners in Kepsut Closed Prison have repeatedly applied to the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission against the rights violations they have been experiencing, but they cannot get information about their situation.

 

* Hundreds of books have been confiscated since 2020. The number of desks in the rooms has been greatly reduced. Canteen prices are quite exorbitant.

 

* Prisoners have not been taken to the infirmary for a long time.

 

IZMIR

 

* In Izmir Type F Closed Prison No 2, wards are frequently raided and all belongings are distributed.

 

* Prisoners in Şakran Women's Closed Prison have not been able to meet with the Prison Director since June against the rights violations they have been experiencing. Here too, prisoners are handcuffed in the hospital detention room.

 

* Seriously ill prisoner Fatma Özbay cannot be treated properly because she is handcuffed in the hospital.

 

* The director of Şakran Type T Closed Prison No 2 imposes on prisoners the demand to meet individually.

 

* Prisoners Ali tetik and Ramazan Atabey were examined in handcuffs at Konak Dental Hospital. At Yeşilyurt State Hospital, Mehmet Kutli and a prisoner named Mahfuz were also asked to be examined in handcuffs. However, Kutli refused to be examined in handcuffs and was sent to prison without being examined.

 

* Especially Konak Dental Hospital and Şehir Hospital impose handcuffed examination.”