Prisoners in overcrowded prisons in Turkey are defenceless against the coronavirus. According to Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül, 120 cases of infection have been detected in four prisons. According to the public prosecutor's office, 55 infections have been confirmed in Konya Prison alone. Relatives of prisoners report COVID-19 symptoms in dozens of prisons. The prisoners complain that the already precarious health care has deteriorated dramatically since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Against this background, HDP MP Musa Farisioğulları calls for comprehensive testing in prisons. At a press conference in the DTK (Democratic Society Congress) building in Amed (Diyarbakir), the HDP politician spoke out on the reform of the penal system law passed in the Turkish parliament. Actually, the reform should be called "Çakıcı amnesty", Farisioğulları said: "The draft law on the execution of sentences, which was jointly submitted by the AKP/MHP bloc and which the opposition calls a 'covert amnesty', was passed unjustly and accompanied by pompous mehter marching music. With this law, mafia boss Alaattin Çakıcı - a loyal friend of MHP leader Bahçeli - and thousands of other criminals have been released."

Sick prisoners, women, journalists, and political prisoners, on the other hand, continue to be held behind bars, the HDP MP said: "According to the information that has reached us in recent days, the necessary protective measures are not being implemented in the prisons. The prisoners are not given masks or hand disinfectants. Some are not taken to hospital despite coronavirus symptoms, but are left to die. Corona tests must be carried out in all prisons, especially in the island prison Imrali. Old and sick prisoners must be released immediately, as must women with children."

The AKP/MHP government coalition is responsible for all expected deaths in prisons, said Farisioğulları who continued; “For fear of losing power, government policy is aimed at inciting social groups against each other. A solution to the Kurdish question has long been shelved. With the enforcement law, the state has once again updated its policy traditionally directed against the Kurdish people. Anger, revenge and rage have mixed with the fear of the AKP/MHP bloc of losing power and led to a new upsurge of nationalist ideology. The marginalization of the Kurds has become a law once again. No pandemic is as dangerous as the revival of nationalist mafias in Turkey. The rejection of democratic methods of resolution and the passing of mafia laws will drive society into even greater chaos."

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