ADANA – AATUHAY-DER Co-Chair Zahir Akalın, stating that prisoners cannot access their right to treatment due to degrading practices, said: "This situation is bringing chronic illnesses to fatal dimensions."

 

The Adana Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the Adana Representative Office of the Association of the Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) announced their rights violation report covering the January-June 2026 period regarding rights violations in prisons. The report stated that 11 ill prisoners, 4 of them seriously ill, are being held in Kürkçüler F-Type Closed Prison, and a total of 14 ill prisoners, 4 of them seriously ill, in Suluca No. 1 High Security Prison.

 

 

Zahir Akalın, Co-Chair of the Mediterranean Adana Prisoners and Convicts Families Solidarity and Aid Association (AATUHAY-DER), spoke about the data in the report and the deepening rights violations in prisons. Drawing attention to the practices that have become chronic in prisons, Akalın stated that prisoners are faced with impositions of oral cavity searches and handcuffed medical examinations. 

 

Emphasizing that prisoners cannot access their right to treatment due to these degrading practices, Akalın said: "Seriously ill prisoners have not been referred to hospital for a long time, and some are forced to give up on this treatment. This situation is bringing chronic illnesses to fatal dimensions."

 

Stating that living spaces are monitored around the clock by cameras and that privacy is being violated in areas such as bathrooms and toilets, Akalın said that prisoners who respond to this practice by covering the cameras are being punished. 

 

Addressing the practices at Suluca No. 1 High Security Prison, Akalın stated that criminal convicts and individuals convicted in ISIS and FETÖ cases are being placed in the blocks where political prisoners are held. Stating that this practice is deliberately aimed at psychological pressure and provocation, Akalın noted that prisoners' daily lives are being sabotaged and called for this practice to be abandoned.

 

MA / Hamdullah Yağız Kesen