On Wednesday morning, Halil Güneş was found dead in his solitary cell in Diyarbakir (Amed) high security prison and 56-year-old Abdülrezzak Şuyur died in Şakran prison in Izmir. Both had been imprisoned since 1993 and were suffering from serious illnesses.

Marmara Association for Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners and Convicts (MA-TUHAYDER) released a written statement concerning ill prisoners who lost their lives in prison.

Defining the increasing rights violations in prisons as a “torture system”, the statement reported that seriously ill prisoners are denied access to medical treatment, jailed in isolated cells, and denied release.

“Every year, dozens of seriously ill prisoners lose their lives in prisons since they are not released and cannot receive medical treatment”, said the statement, referring to the cases of ill prisoners Halil Güneş and Abdülrezzak Şuyur, who have died in prison today, as well as ill prisoners Bangin Muhammed from Afrin, and Garibe Gezer who suspiciously died in prison following torture, sexual harassment, and solitary confinement.

Abdülrezzak Şuyur, who was diagnosed with cancer 3 months before his death, and Halil Güneş, who suffered from lung and bone cancer for a long while, had been denied access to medical treatment, according to the statement.

The statement called the aggravated isolation imposed on Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan on Imralı “a part of the system enforced on the peoples of Turkey, especially on the Kurdish people.”

Pointing to the increasing number of prisons filled with opponents in Turkey, the association called for urgent action against torture and ill treatment in prisons; “We call on NGOs, concerned institutions and our people to be sensitive against the persecution in prisons and to stand with the families and relatives of prisoners, who have been holding a vigil in the premises of Van and Amed Bar Association to stop the deaths in prisons.”