ADANA - Relatives of ill prisoners demanded the government to take immediate steps to solve the problem of ill prisoners and said, "They should be released as soon as possible."

 

According to the data of the Human Rights Association (IHD), there are one thousand 412 ill prisoners in prisons, 335 of them seriously ill. The solution to the problem of ill prisoners, which has been on the agenda frequently due to the deaths of many prisoners in prison, but which the government has refrained from finding a solution, has created expectations again with Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society". 

 

After the call, the public expected the government to make a legal regulation on ill prisoners as a step of goodwill, but the government has not yet taken a step to produce a solution. The government has not solved the problem of ill prisoners and continues to prevent the release of ill prisoners.

 

Mehmet Şirin Bozçalı, who is being held in Bolu F-Type Closed Prison, is one of the ill prisoners on IHD's list of ill prisoners whose release has been postponed while the public is waiting for a solution to the problem of ill prisoners. Bozçalı was detained in Mersin on 22 July 1992 and sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment by the State Security Court on charges of "disrupting the unity and integrity of the state". Bozçalı, who suffers from hepatitis B, was prevented from being released twice for 3 months each by the Administrative and Observation Board, and then his execution was burnt.

 

Bozçalı's older brother Hamdullah Bozçalı stated that his brother was not given the necessary treatment and his release was prevented twice for 3 months each and then his execution was burnt. Bozçalı demanded the abolition of the Administrative and Observation Boards and the release of all prisoners, starting with the ill prisoners, and noted that Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society" had created hope in this regard. 

 

Bozçalı said that the 10th Judicial Package, which was organised by the government based on the "process", does not include regulations on ill prisoners and political prisoners, and asked for such regulations to be made as soon as possible, "Peace and brotherhood cannot be one-sided. We want both sides to be honest in this process on an honest basis. We, as families of prisoners, support this process. We are behind our leader," he said. 

 

'RELEASE THE PRISONERS'

 

Another ill prisoner Feridun Kurt is in the same prison with Bozçalı. Kurt, who was detained in Adana in 1995 and severely tortured in detention, became disabled in his lower back due to torture. Kurt, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for "disrupting the unity and integrity of the state" by the DGM in the same year, struggles with diseases such as improper union of the fracture in his coccyx due to torture, herniated disc, arthritis, inflammation in his arms, as well as blood pressure, asthma and cholesterol.

 

Özlem Kurt stated that her brother-in-law had been in prison for 30 years and could not survive on his own due to his illnesses and said, "We want all political prisoners to be released together with Feridun Kurt who cannot survive on his own. This is their right and their constitutional right."

 

Özlem Kurt stated that they support Abdullah Öcalan's call but the state has increased the pressure in prisons in response to this call, and added that the psychological pressure on prisoners in prisons has increased, releases continue to be prevented and ill prisoners are not treated. "They should be released as soon as possible," she said. 

 

MA / Hamdullah Yağız Kesen