ANKARA - HDP MP Züleyha Gülüm, who brought the hunger strike to the agenda of the parliament, asked the Minister of Justice, "Do you, as a ministry, plan to meet with prisoners?"

 

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul MP Züleyha Gülüm brought the hunger strikes in prisons to the agenda of the assembly. HDP MP submitted a parliamentary question to the presidency of the assembly with the request of Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül to answer.

 

In the parliamentray question, which stated that the conditions of prisoners got worse with the F-type prison system in Turkey, mentioned: "In the İmralı Prison, all legal regulations were ignored, and absolute isolation was implemented. The unlawful practices initiated in İmralı Prison are wanted to spread to all prisons." In the written statement, it was noted that violations against political prisoners have increased gradually since 2016, and that violations reached the highest level with the pandemic.

 

‘Applications of sick prisoners are arbitrarily rejected’

 

In the parliamentary question, reminding the law on execution of sentences that was passed in a discriminatory manner to political prisoners, the following was noted: "While partial and special amnesty was issued with the discriminatory execution law, the conditions of political prisoners were made more difficult. The law stipulates the ‘good mood’ condition, which is considered arbitrarily and biased by the Administration and Observation Boards for prisoners' conditional release, transition to open prison, and probation, and objections to the decisions are rejected by the Offices of Judge of Execution, which have lost their impartiality and independence. Applications for postponement of execution of sick prisoners in prisons are arbitrarily rejected. Sick prisoners have been placed at risk under pandemic conditions, and prisoners' access to hospital and treatment has been denied. These gross negligence and violations caused many sick prisoners to die."

 

Rights violations listed

 

Attention was drawn to many violations of right such as; political prisoners are exposed to strip searches, private areas are monitored with cameras, wards are not ventilated in summer and not heated in winter, there is no clean and hot water, continuous raids are carried out on the wards, a standing count is forced, arbitrarily restricting the rights to chat, workshop and sports, confiscation of belongings in unfair and arbitrary searches, visit and communication penalties, denial of communication and access to information, verbal and physical attacks of the guards.

 

During the pandemic process, access to the right to health and the sale of hygiene materials at exorbitant prices was emphasized, and it was stated; "prisoners have started an indefinite-alternating hunger strike against the isolation, violations of rights and the transformation of the penal execution system into a means of revenge in prisons in Turkey and they are on their 162nd day as of today."