ANKARA - Nuray Çevirmen, Co-Spokesperson of the İHD Central Prisons Commission, which evaluates the violations of rights that continue in prisons with each passing day, said that 62 prisoners have lost their lives since the beginning of the year. Nuray said the system in Turkey has turned into a regime of imprisonment.

 

The aggravated isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan is reflected in other prisons as well. This reflection causes an increase in different dimensions together with suspicious death and other rights violations.  While the reactions to the ongoing rights violations in prisons continue, the ruling wing insists on not taking a single step.

 

Nuray Çevirmen, Co-Spokesperson of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Central Prisons Commission and member of the Central Executive Board (MYK), evaluated the violations of rights in prisons.

 

62 prisoners have died since 2022

 

Nuray said that 62 prisoners lost their lives since the beginning of the year, and that 30 of these prisoners lost their lives due to health problems. Stating that 3 of the 30 prisoners are 80 years old or older, Nuray said, "There was talk that prisoners over the age of 65 would be released from the first beginning of the pandemic, but this law has evolved in a completely different direction. Unfortunately, sick prisoners continue to be kept in prison, under the TMK. When we prepare a list of sick prisoners, many prisoners over the age of 65 are kept in prison. Some of the prisoners who lost their lives die shortly after their executions are postponed. We look at them as those who lost their lives in prison. Because in that process, the health problem progressed, they were ignored from treatment opportunities, and they came to the limit of death. Coming out of prison on the verge of death means that they did not die in prison. Two prisoners died a week after the execution was suspended. 1 prisoner died a few months later, 1 prisoner died after 15 days, and another prisoner died 15 days later.”

 

'The system has turned into an incarceration regime'

 

Emphasizing that there is a process that causes the prisoners to lose their lives in prisons, as the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) persistently reports that they can "stay in prison" despite the persistent investigations, Nuray said, "11 prisoners were driven to suicide among the prisoners who lost their lives, one prisoner does not know the cause of death, while the death of 25 prisoners is suspicious. Violence and torture images about why the prisoners lost their lives are reflected to the public. The officials who carry out all these processes and violate human rights are left behind. In the context of prisoners who lost their lives because a fair process was not carried out, the Ministry of Justice should implement an execution system in all prisons in accordance with human rights norms, but unfortunately, we are free from this. It is not just a matter of ending the violations of rights in prisons, but the main problem is that the system in Turkey has turned into an incarceration regime. Currently, there is an ever-increasing number of prisoners in prisons. The number of prisoners is over 326 thousand, we witness an increase of several thousand each time the statistics are announced. "Although there are constant entrances and exits to the prison, this number is constantly increasing,"

 

'We couldn't go beyond the right to life'

 

Referring to the newly built high security prisons, Nuray used the following words: “Here, the prisoners are left alone and isolated. Isolation is a very important issue on prisoners. It is both at a point that harms their bodily integrity and is psychologically abrasive. Prisoners in prisons are exposed to diseases for many years in those prison conditions, prisoners held alone in high security and S-type prisons in a single place are taken to another place for ventilation at one hour of the day and then brought back. The ward does not have its own ventilation, which causes both rheumatism and lung problems as it must dry its clothes in the ward. Keeping a person alone for 24 hours is a form of torture. These are the conventions that make it mandatory for Turkey to apply human rights norms in international conventions that Turkey has secured with international conventions and Article 90 of the constitution. Turkey is obliged to implement these conventions, but unfortunately it does not implement the conventions. Although there are regulations that protect people's right to life in Turkey's constitutional legal system, it violates them. With its practices, the Turkish state is both acting against its own law and violating the contracts it has signed. We have not gone beyond the most basic right to life.”

 

'Impartial decisions'

 

Pointing out that since the Administrative and Observation Board entered the regulation, the release of prisoners has been prevented at the end of their legal execution time, which has been given by the court, Nuray said, “The administrative observation board does not only make decisions about them. This board decides on many practices regarding the continuation of prisoners' lives in prisons. There is no question of whether this board has sufficient equipment when making these decisions. A prisoner is tried in court, is sentenced for a certain period of time. The duration of his sentence also states how long he will be released, whether he can benefit from the condition of release or probation. However, with the decisions of the administration and the observation boards, the prisoners are exposed to several very abstract questions by being taken to the observation boards every six months in the first period and then every three months in the following periods. As a result of decisions that are far from the truth and not objective, these rights are blocked, and they continue to stay in prisons.”

 

Disciplinary penalties are given

 

Pointing out that the detainees are subject to disciplinary punishments for seeking their rights, Nuray emphasized that the prisoners are tried to be suppressed with this method. Nuray said, “The lawsuits against rights and disciplinary investigations are all brought as an obstacle to the probation or conditional release of the prisoners. In Trabzon Prison, the administrative observation board asks several questions to a prisoner, and the prisoner answers all the questions. She does not want to answer a question within the scope of freedom of thought and expression, and she is given a three-month postponement. The prisoner complied with all the rules, there is no disciplinary punishment, but the following justification is given; It's like "even though she has paid his electricity debt, she hasn't been able to use water sparingly or not". There was no request for a room change, but a justification is given such as 'she changed rooms 8 times', even though there are rooms placed by the prison administration during the quarantine process or when he was new to the prison. Due to such reasons, the prisoner was postponed for another 2 months. The conditional release of the prisoners in Bolu Prison was prevented, and the prisoner's sentence was increased to 36 years on the grounds of the 30-year solitary sentence. The situation of women in Sincan Women's Closed Prison is the same.”

 

Decision not to appear on the boards

 

Emphasizing that the prisoners did not want to appear on these boards due to the said practice, Nuray said finally: “They have decided not to appear on boards that ignore human dignity, ignore freedom of expression, and thought, and act like a court. While the prisoners should be released, they continue to be held in prisons. It is not easy for people to stay in prison, all kinds of rights violations have been brought in the wearing process,"