Kurdish political prisoner Yaşar Kırmızı was in his mid-twenties when he was arrested in Turkey in 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a state security court on charges of separatism. Now he is 56 years old and finally free.
Political prisoner Yaşar Kırmızı has been released after more than 31 years in Turkish prisons. He was in his mid-twenties when he was arrested in October 1992 in the province of Urfa and sentenced to life imprisonment by a state security court (DGM) in the same year on charges of "destroying the state unity of Turkey".
After spending time in various prisons in the country, including Amed (Diyarbakır), Antep and Bolu, Kırmızı was last held in a high-security prison in Karakoçan district of Elazığ. After his release, he was received by his relatives, supporters and friends with applause and flowers. They will accompany Kırmızı on his journey to his hometown of Ceylanpınar district.
Among the group that greeted Kırmızı at the prison gates was another former "lifer", Musa Şanak, who was released in August last year. Şanak and Kırmızı had served time in the same communal cell in Bolu prison.
