Convicts In Dire Medical Condition Remain Imprisoned

Despite medical reports stating that they are ineligible to stay in prison, several convicts remain imprisoned in Turkey with ailments that are considered "dangerous to the community."

Ergin Aktaş, 26, who struggles to speak, suffers from memory loss and had to have limbs amputated after an explosion, has twice received reports by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) stating he is ineligible to stay in prison because he is "dangerous to the community." Despite the reports, he remains confined.

Due to their inability to take care of themselves in day-to-day living, ailing prisoners are being deprived of their legal rights to receive treatment.

According to the law, prisoners are allowed to postpone their prison terms by up to six months, but they have not been given this right.

Neriman Çelik of the Human Rights Association's (İHD) Prison Commission has filed 578 cases in which convicts in ill health remain incarcerated, 228 of whom suffered from serious conditions. Çelik shared that there is a limited number of regulations being upheld and that it often takes one month to dispatch a prisoner to a hospital for treatment.

She also shared that even after releasing convicts to hospitals, it has taken up to a year for some to receive their hospital reports.

“Therefore, no one has been removed from prison unless they were on the brink of death. And those [ill prisoners] who have been removed from prison die soon after they are released. They only remove people who they are certain will die,” she stated.

The activist likened the treatment of the convicts to torture, stating: "One will come out of chemotherapy in handcuffs. The same goes for those who have undergone surgical operations.”

Furthermore, in response to a parliamentary question that was submitted by Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Ensar Öğüt, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said that, as of Aug. 21, 2014, 757 prisoners suffer from serious diseases.

Müleyke Barutçu (Cihan/Today's Zaman)