ANKARA - DEM Party and ÖHD have released a report on violations in Karabük Prison, stating that 17 prisoners have not been released even though their execution periods have expired and demanding the abolition of the unlawfully operated İGKs. 

 

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Law and Human Rights Commission and Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) announced the report on rights violations in Karabük Type T Closed Prison with a press conference at the party's headquarters. 

 

DEM Party Şirnex MP Nevroz Uysal Aslan said that TEM police officers raided two rooms in the prison in question. Uysal said: “This report is quite striking in terms of revealing how and on what grounds the release of prisoners who have completed their execution period is prevented.”

 

EMPHASIS ON THE TORTURE REGIME IN IMRALI 

 

Expressing that Turkey is facing a social decay, Uysal stated that they are in an environment where injustice is rampant, a state of exception is tried to be normalized and imposed on the society “This lawlessness; There is no doubt that it takes its source from the inhumane torture regime carried out on Mr. Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı Island Prison” she said and also stated that the regime in İmralı, where torture continues as a state of incommunicado, is spreading with all its practices to the prisons of Kurdistan and Turkey and to the whole society.”  

 

17 PRISONERS NOT RELEASED

 

Uysal also shared the information that 17 prisoners in Karabük Type T Prison have not been released despite completing their execution, “The freedom of prisoners has been usurped. Although the conditional release date of many prisoners has passed, their release has been postponed two or three times with the decision of the board” she said.

The names of the prisoners whose releases were postponed are as follows: Şirin Taşdemir, Hakkı Aygün, Halil Temel, Kadri Alkoç, Ahmet Bayna, Ejder Doğan, Ali Koç, Mehmet Sarıaltun, Abdullah Ok, Aydın Kudat, Abdurrahman Güner, Mustafa Karakaya, Hasan Öğüt, Adem Oktay, Ali Haydar Elyakut, Metin Çakır, Muhittin Pirinçioğlu.”

 

Alişan Şahin, a member of the Human Rights Association (IHD) Central Executive Committee (MYK) and ÖHD member, pointed to the practices of the committees and stated that they are applied only to Kurdish, leftist and socialist prisoners. Stating that this is discrimination, “They tried to legitimize this with the legal cover they brought. They are doing a legitimate job in their own way. But this activity has done nothing but discredit this country and its judiciary as a whole. This will be understood” he said.  

 

Stating that the prisoners were brought before a committee and regret was imposed, Şahin said: “Such a law, such an execution regime does not exist anywhere in the world. This is blatant torture. With the legal amendment they made, the only thing they didn't write was: 'Except for Kurds and left-wing socialists.' I wish you had written that too.” 

 

THE BOARD DECISION IS NOT LEGITIMATE

 

Pointing to the structure and attitudes of the Administration and Observation Board, Şahin said that the board took the prisoner to the meeting as if they were interrogating him alone and that this meeting was not recorded on camera and that no one knew anything about what was going on. Şahin also stated that the prisoner should at least have been brought to the board with their lawyera or a representative appointed by the bar association, and since this was not done, the board was unlawful and its decisions were not legitimate, and that a more effective struggle should be waged. 

 

Şahin pointed out that there were no such examples from Karabük Type T Closed Prison before, but with the increase in the isolation against PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, releases in these prisons started to be prevented and violations increased.

 

'EQUIPPED WITH BROAD POWERS'

 

ÖHD Ankara Branch Co-Chair lawyer Ferdi Sidar said: “Justice and law do not consist of arbitrary decisions made by the Administration and Observation Board. The Board of Administration and Observation was established for a limited purpose such as changing wards, dealing with social, sportive and cultural activities and regulations. However, over time, it was gradually equipped with new powers. Moreover, not with ordinary powers, but with extremely oppressive, prohibitive and unlivable powers that directly affect the current and future life of prisoners, which can keep them in prison despite court decisions and even the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and international law.” 

 

'INCOMPATIBLE WITH LAW, CONSCIENCE AND MORALITY'

  

Pointing out that the postponement of release is not a situation that can be explained by law, Sidar continued as follows: “People who have served 30 years in prison are prevented from being released by presenting many absurd justifications such as you are not in good behavior, you are not remorseful, you read too many books, you don't read these books, etc. As lawyers, we would like to evaluate this in legal terms, but these decisions and practices have nothing to do with law, conscience or morality. Preventing release of prisoners for three months, six months and one year has gone beyond a point that can be explained by law. It is legally and conscientiously essential for the state to act in accordance with the principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination and to make an arrangement in line with the principle of 'equality in execution'.”