The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) and the Federation of Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners and Convicts (MED TUHAD-FED) announced their six-month report based on 3,500 applications received from 115 prisons.
The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) and the Federation of Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners and Convicts (MED TUHAD-FED) published their six-month report based on 3,500 applications received from 115 prisons.
The report was presented at the Çand Amed Congress Center and reveals that rights violations in Turkish prisons are not isolated incidents but have turned into a systematic and structural human rights crisis.
Key findings highlighted in the report include:
- 631 seriously ill detainees are struggling to survive because they cannot access treatment and are subjected to inhumane practices such as handcuffed medical examinations and mouth cavity searches.
- 400 prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment have been held for years in solitary confinement under social isolation.
- 359 political prisoners are not being released despite completing their sentences, under arbitrary pretexts.
- Nearly 200 prisoners from Rojava and Rojhilat are classified as “stateless” and denied defense and visitation rights.
- 327 female prisoners are subjected to discriminatory and sexist practices within the penal system because of both their political identity and their gender.
Systematic violations
Some of the violations listed in the report are:
- Prevention of access to treatment and medication, biased reports by the Forensic Medicine Institute,
- “Extension of prison time” practices: obstruction of release for inmates who have completed their sentences via “Administrative and Observation Boards,”
- Transfers, ill-treatment, disciplinary punishments, and restriction of social rights,
- Structural inequality and rights violations targeting female prisoners,
- The invisibility of stateless prisoners and the elimination of their right to defense.
Penal system operates with a revenge mindset
The report emphasized that the penal system “contradicts the principles of the rule of law” and operates with a “revenge-oriented mindset.” It stated that the practices targeting political prisoners undermine peace and democratic resolution processes, calling for the recognition of the right to hope, equality in enforcement of sentences, and an end to enemy criminal law targeting political prisoners. The report concluded with the slogan “Political prisoners are our honor.”
