Turkish Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin has answered the motion on sick prisoners BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) deputy Ayla Akat Ata had tabled on 19 February 2013. According to the figures released by the Minister of Justice, at least 1,949 prisoners died in prison since the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to the power.

Minister Ergin argued that sick prisoners could benefit from health services like every free citizen in the country, and were provided with all kinds of treatment, free of charge, they need.

The figures the Minister provides however contradict his arguments, and reveal the fact that there has been a remarkable increase in the number of sick prisoners since the AK party come into power in 2002.

Minister Ergin listed the number of prisoners who died in jail as follows; 193 prisoners in 2000, 158 in 2001, 89 in 2002, 163 in 2003, 54 in 2004, 59 in 2005, 157 in 2006, 176 in 2007, 211 in 2008, 196 in 2009, 252 in 2010, 268 in 2011, 260 in 2012 and 60 as of April 4, 2013.

In a recently released preliminary survey report about the problems suffered by ill prisoners in Turkish jails, Bars of Ağrı, Batman, Bitlis, Bingöl, Amed, Erzurum, Hakkari, Kars, Mardin, Muş, Siirt, Urfa, Şırnak, Dersim and Van highlighted that Kurdish ill prisoners in particular were subjected to insults and discrimination, and in some cases denied treatment, by doctors who display a discriminative attitude towards prisoners and insult them because of their ethnicity.

A delegation of lawyers from the mentioned bars stated that sick prisoners in different jails in Istanbul had to wait for a long time before receiving an answer to their demands for hospitalization and treatment. According to the report, even the prisoners with serious diseases have to wait for three to four months for treatment for which they are taken to hospital not in ambulances but in military ring vehicles, and are kept waiting not in the hospital but in the vehicle while waiting for the finalization of medical and formal procedures for examination.

The Bars demanded an immediate end to discriminative practices imposed on ill prisoners, procedural act against those responsible for these practices, the improvement of prison and treatment conditions of all ill prisoners, the stay of execution and urgent release of all those facing a life-threatening situation.

According to figures for the month of November released by the Association of Human Rights Association (IHD), there are 544 sick prisoners requiring intensive care. Of these 162 are in very serious conditions.

TUHAD-FED, the Federation of Associations of Solidarity with Prisoners, has recently collected one million signatures, asking for the release of sick prisoners and for medical care to be available to prisoners.

The issue of sick prisoners has an important place in the current peace talks which involve the BDP, Kurdish Leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish government.

In January 2013 there were laws to overcome the problem that prevents the release of sick prisoners, both in custody or on remand. According to the new Law 6411 in January 2013, the condition that allows the release of sick prisoners has been changed as follows: "The prisoner patient who is unable to provide for his/her care can be released." On the other hand, prosecutors are allowed wide discretion in Turkey, and this means they do not allow the release of prisoners even though they are in critical condition, on the pretext that sick prisoners may endanger the safety of the community if released.