The legal association ÖHD said that the condition of political prisoner Cemal Tanhan is worsening. The 68-year-old suffered a pulmonary embolism in Bolu prison. His lawyer Şükrü Alpsoy learned this from the state hospital where Tanhan was admitted after a circulatory collapse on Tuesday.

"In order to ensure optimal care, the head physician of the Izzet Baysal Clinic arranged for our client to be transported to a better-equipped hospital in Eskişehir,"  Alpsoy said. 

In Turkish prisons for 29 years

Cemal Tanhan has been in prison for almost three decades, and has been held in Bolu maximum security prison since 2006. He was arrested in Izmir in 1994 and sentenced to life imprisonment on "separatism" charges. Tanhan suffers from a variety of illnesses, including pulmonary edema, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart failure, as well as spinal disc problems, inflammation in his legs and hearing loss - the long-term effects of severe torture he suffered after his arrest.

The 68-year-old, who is in a wheelchair, should receive inpatient cardiology treatment. The Istanbul Institute of Forensic Medicine came to this conclusion last April. Yet Tanhan has not been released.

Lawyers applied for release 

Lawyer Şükrü Alpsoy has applied to the Bolu Prison Public Prosecutor's Office for Tanhan's release: "The ÖHD demands that our client’s remaining prison sentence be suspended due to his obvious health condition."