400 people, including poets, writers, journalists, academics, feminists, activists, musicians, trade unionists, farmers, educators, retired parliamentarians, issued a written statement joining the call of the Freedom for Ill Prisoners and Aysel Tuğluk Platform in Izmir. The statement demanded the end of rights violations in prisons and the release of Aysel Tuğluk and all ill prisoners.

Isolation, oppression, violence

The statement said that prisons have come to the fore because of the continuous isolation imposed on prisoners and human rights violations. The statement said: "Prisoners are kept under 24-hour surveillance and isolation in high security prisons and deprived of proper food, health and shelter opportunities, and are exposed to various physical and psychological pressures and violence. Many detainees are squeezed into cramped cells and are denied the most basic rights.

As seen in the case of Aysel Tuğluk, the most important violation of rights in prisons is the denial of health services and to the right to treatment.”

The 400 signatories called on the Ministry of Justice to "implement the legal regulations in order to reorganize the prison conditions in a way that befits human life and dignity, and to provide treatment opportunities in hospital."