Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul Branch Prisons Commission members held a demonstration in Istanbul's Galatasaray Square to call attention to the situation of ill prisoners across Turkey.

Demonstrators demanded the closure of F Type prisons and highlighted on banners names of the prisoners that lost their lives in jail during 2016.

Speaking here, Commission member Zeynep Ceren Boztoprak called attention to the increasingly ongoing denial and violation of prisoners' rights and unlawful practices suffered by inmates in jails.

Boztoprak cited the practices of strip search and treatment while handcuffed as unlawful practices that go against the law on criminal execution.

Speaking after, IHD Prisons Commission member Taylan Bekin read the press statement and remarked that many prisoners that have no health problems when jailed are starting to face serious problems in the following process of imprisonment due to practices such as isolation, inadequate nutrition, lack of cleaning and hygiene, denial of treatment and restriction of freedoms. On the other hand, the health of those who already have medical problems while being jailed is seriously deteriorating in prison conditions.

Bekin noted that the Turkish state is a party to many national and international conventions, the United Nations Charter being in the first place. Bekin informed that as many as 47 inmates lost their lives in prisons during the year of 2016.

Regarding the situation of ill prisoners, Bekin on behalf of IHD called on Turkish authorities to;

- base on human rights and freedoms to prevent further deaths in prisons,

- end policies that ignore the situation of ill prisoners and avoid them being brought up for discussion,

- provide ill prisoners with adequate and required treatment,

- release the ill prisoners who are in critical condition.