ANKARA - Describing the Administrative and Monitoring Board, which postponed her release 5 times, as “the bureaucratic cancer of the justice institution,” 30-year prisoner Nedime Yaklav said: “If you are Kurd and political, you are not ‘well-behaved’ . The message is very clear; deny and ignore yourself.”
Nedime Yaklav, a 31-year prisoner on the Human Rights Association's (IHD) list of ill prisoners, is not being released on the grounds that she is not in “good behavior”. Yaklav, who is being held in Sincan Women's Closed Prison, was arrested after being detained in 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment for “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state”. Although Yaklav completed her sentence on April 1, 2023, she has not been released. The Prison Administration and Monitoring Board postponed Yaklav's release twice for 3 months, twice for 6 months and on August 22 for 9 months. Yaklav's release was postponed due to she is not in “good behavior”.
'THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR: DENY AND IGNORE YOURSELF'
Answering our questions through her lawyers about the postponement of her release 5 times, Yaklav described the Administrative and Observation Boards as “the bureaucratic hunchback or cancer of the justice institution”. Stating that the committees impose regret on prisoners under the name of “improvement”, Yaklav said: “Saying ‘Do you regret?’ is not just an ordinary question. Whoever faces this question knows that they are faced with denying the whole life they have lived so far. Those who ask 'Do you regret it' are not satisfied with this, they also bind your future with the question 'What will you do next? The message is very clear; deny yourself, ignore and become nothing.”
'THEY GET INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SAME PLACE'
Pointing out that according to the law, she should be released after 30 years of imprisonment, “The head of the board, the first director of the prison, can say, 'I don't know how to deal with the type of execution you are under. The instruction given to me is Article 89 of Law No. 5275. I am applying this to you'. In other words, she cannot apply to me a type of execution that I am subject to” she said.
Yaklav stated that she appealed against the board's decisions and asked for the execution law to be applied, and that all of her applications were rejected. Yaklav said: “There is a flagrant violation of the law by applying a type of execution that I am not even affiliated with. But all these institutions I mentioned have obviously received instructions from the same place. Not one of them comes out and says, 'Let me put a stop to this unlawfulness. Since 2022, nearly 20 political prisoners have been victims of the board.”
'YOU ARE NOT IN GOOD BEHAVIOR IF YOU ARE A KURD'
Yaklav said that there is no “good behavior” for political prisoners. Yaklav said: “It doesn't matter if you have escaped, if you have hundreds of disciplinary penalties or if you haven't done anything. Once you become Kurd and political, you are not in good behavior. There is no equivalence between 'crime' and 'punishment', and they are trying to produce 'crime' with lies.”
'WE ARE BEING SLANDERED'
Pointing out that the 'Sub-Administrative Observation Board' structure, which is not applied in any prison, is applied in Sincan Prison, Yaklav said: “Despite all the applications of us and lawyers, none of us actually appeared before the board. Despite this, in the reports that we are not in ‘good behavior’, baseless justifications such as ‘not knowing the board’, ‘not participating in the interview’ can be shown. We are slandered despite official documents and camera recordings. Even with objections, we cannot make our voices heard by anyone. As I mentioned above, it is clear that the board in my prison does not comply with existing laws and regulations. What is the disadvantage of being in Ankara; we are becoming victims of the parallel structures that fall on us.”
'THEY MAKE UP THE LAW THAT DOES NOT FIT'
Yaklav said the following: “The first director of the prison is trying to make up a law that does not apply to us, saying, 'If I had committed unlawful acts, other institutions would have turned in your favor. 'If you are a Kurd, especially a political prisoner, your voice is not heard by anyone. Those who hear your voice are from your side, so to speak, those like you. I think the most important thing is that we fight against these unlawfulnesses with an exit like 'This is the system, we can't help it, we can't do anything'.”
MA / Hivda Çelebi