HDP Co-Deputy President Meral Danış Beştaş issued a written statement regarding the violation of prisoners’ rights.

HDP Co-Deputy President Meral Danış Beştaş has drawn attention to the fact that the AKP's policy of prohibition towards political prisoner is continuing, saying that the Ministry has sent a directive to prisons saying publications not provided by distribution companies cannot be given to prisoners. She called on the government to abandon this practice.

Beştaş noted that the government was trying to isolate political prisoners, saying the most recent example was a directive sent to prisons regarding the prohibition of publications not distributed by the large distribution companies. She added: "This latest directive, which takes away the right of political prisoners to access news and express their opinions, ignores existing legislation, which is itself insufficient. Publications which are not banned cannot be prevented from reaching individuals. It is unacceptable for the Ministry to give prisons this right.”

Beştaş added that the aim of these measures was to put pressure on political prisoners and further increase their isolation.

'The government must abandon this illegal measure’

Beştaş said that the HDP Law and Human Rights Commission would take legal action regarding this and similar illegal measures in the prisons, and called on the Government, the Ministry of Justice and the Directorate of Prisons to immediately abandon this illegal restriction of the right to freedom of expression and right to receive news.