Friday, November 5, 2010

352 prisoners died in prison


03 November 2010


Authorities are maintaining silence about the worsening situations of ill prisoners and closing their eyes to the death of 352 prisoners in the last 10 years.

Authorities are maintaining silence about the worsening situations of ill prisoners and closing their eyes to the death of 352 prisoners in the last 10 years. Ignoring warnings that “the prisoners cannot be treated in the prison”, authorities explain deaths as “natural death” and thus, they legally approve to leave other ill prisoners and convicts to the same fate.

While 97 seriously ill prisoners are waiting for their “time of death”, other prisoners also face similar illnesses.

Authorities are remaining insensitive to ill prisoners that are progressing to death in prisons of Turkey. According to the report of TİHV Documentation Center concerning the right abuses in the first 6 months of 2010, 97 seriously ill prisoners and convicts are waiting for treatment. However, no positive step has been taken so far despite the big effort of tens of institutions and political organizations like İHD, MAZLUM-DER, TUHAD-FED, DTO, BDP, Blue Libra Jurists and regional bars that have appealed to government many times.

According to the researches made, the number of prisoners left to death in prisons has reached 352 in the last 10 years. While the insensitivity is bringing ill prisoners closer to death day by day, the worry of families is changing into uprising. By expressing deaths as “date of maturity”, authorities are giving a legal approval to further prisoner deaths like Abdullah Akçay, who got cancer before his 18 and lost his life in the prison he was jailed in.

Forensic Report awaited for Soysal

The situations of some ill prisoners have become worrisome in the last two weeks. Bedfast prisoner Nurettin Soysal, who has no medical chance to live, is waiting for his death in Diyarbakır D Type Closed Prison. Soysal’s needs are met by his ward-mates. The decision of the Forensic Medicine Institution, where Soysal was taken for the third time, is awaited curiously.

Suffering on the way to the hospital!

Similarly, the thyroid gland cancer of prisoner İsmet Ayaz in Adıyaman E Type has evolved into throat cancer. Ayaz’s family wants to hire an ambulance for him as he cannot be taken to legal medicine with a ring vehicle due to his illness, but the prison administration doesn’t make any allowances for them. And the pains of osteoid cancer patient Halil Güneş in Diyarbakır D Type Closed Prison are eased with narcotics.

Translation: Berna Özgencil

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ANF NEWS AGENCY