According to the data of the Ministry of Justice dated 5 December 2024, 709 prisoners lost their lives in prison in 11 months of 2024, while 8 thousand 521 prisoners were prevented from being released on the grounds of not being in good behaviour. Grave violations of rights in prisons are also reflected in the data organised by many institutions. Violations were also reflected in the report issued by the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) and the Federation of Med Federation of Legal and Solidarity Associations of Families of Prisoners and Detainees (MED TUHAD-FED) on 2 January. In the report, the insolvency of the Kurdish issue and the isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan were cited as the main reasons for the rights violations.

 

Co-spokesperson of ÖHD Prisons Commission Ayşe Şehriban Demirel, who is among the organizations organising the report, stated that the main reason for the rights violations in prisons is the direct result of the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan. Ayşe Şehriban Demirel stated that the violations are systematic and the main one of these violations is the prevention of ill prisoners' right to access to health care, and added that ill prisoners face problems due to oral searches and handcuffed transfers and that lawyers cannot get any results in their applications. Pointing to the preventive role of the Forensic Medicine Institution in preventing the release of ill prisoners, Ayşe Şehriban Demirel pointed to the preventive role of the Forensic Medicine Institution in preventing the release of Fevzi Aslan, a seriously ill prisoner held in Adana High Security Closed Prison, as an example.

 

Stating that another institution that causes rights violations in prisons is the Administration and Observation Board established in 2021, Ayşe Şehriban Demirel said, "The most important violation of rights inflicted on prisoners by the Administrative and Observation Board is the postponement and prevention of release."

 

Ayşe Şehriban Demirel stated that Sincan Women's Closed Prison is a pilot prison in terms of implementing the rights violations of the Administrative and Observation Board, and emphasised that since 2021, when the Administrative and Observation Board was implemented, no women prisoner has been allowed to exercise her right to parole from this prison. Ayşe Şehriban Demirel pointed out that the evaluations of the Observation Boards are far from being objective, and stated that the boards ask questions that the court would not ask.

 

"The general questions asked here are questions such as 'Is the PKK a terrorist organisation?', 'Do you regret it?', 'What do you think about Abdullah Öcalan?', questions about what the prisoner will do or not do after being released from prison. With these questions, they postpone the execution of the prisoner. In addition to Sincan, a similar situation is observed in Urfa. This is also a pilot prison. It prevents the release of prisoners who should have been released on parole in the last period," she said. 

 

Ayşe Şehriban Demirel stated that the Administrative and Observation Boards also use arbitrarily imposed disciplinary penalties as grounds for preventing parole. Ayşe Şehriban Demirel stated that disciplinary penalties were given on grounds such as "halay", "not taking and reading books from the library requested by the administration", "not getting along with the officers".

 

'VIOLATIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT FROM ISOLATION'

 

Stating that all these violations are directly linked to the isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Ayşe Şehriban Demirel noted that Type F S and Y prisons were built to deepen the isolation. "The situation of prisons in Turkey is not independent from the current political conjuncture," said Ayşe Şehriban Demirel and added: "We know that the İmralı Type F Island Prison, which was created after Mr Abdullah Öcalan was brought to Turkey, was targeting political prisoners, especially Kurdish political prisoners. S and Y types were also built. It is necessary to prevent the creation of these prison types and to initiate a reaction and a legal process against this. We will apply to the necessary authorities with the data we have gathered. We know that what is being carried out against political prisoners in Turkey, this isolation system is not independent of each other. It is not independent from the agenda in Turkey," Ayşe Şehriban Demirel said. 

 

'PUBLIC OPINION SHOULD REACT SERIOUSLY'

 

"It would be correct to associate the rights violations in Turkey with İmralı," said Ayşe Şehirban Demirel and continued: "It is obvious that the lawlessness in İmralı is not independent from the lawlessness in other prisons. The public and democratic institutions should take this into consideration and give serious solution proposals and serious reactions to this problem. We are in a period when not only national law but also international law and international mechanisms have become dysfunctional. Although the CPT carried out a visit, it did not publish its report on the visit. Regarding this, it said that it was 'with Turkey's permission'. There is still no explanation. Of course, we will continue to demand that international mechanisms fulfil their duties."

 

MA / Ceylan Şahinli