IHD Prison Commission demands release of Aysel Tuğluk

The prison commission of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) has called for what remains of the prison sentence of Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk to be suspended. The lawyer is suffering from dementia and can no longer take care of herself. She is completely dependent on the help of her fellow prisoners, explained lawyer Davut Arslan at the ‘F sit-in’ of the IHD.

This was the 501st time the IHD Prison Commission carried out this action, which is named after the Turkish prison solitary confinement system type F, in order to draw attention to the situation of ill prisoners.

Aysel Tuğluk has been in Kandıra prison in the western Turkish province of Kocaeli since 28 December 2016. The lawyer, who also represented Abdullah Öcalan, has already been convicted in several proceedings and other trials are still pending. In February 2020, the Turkish Court of Appeal confirmed the highest prison sentence to date against Tuğluk of over ten years. The 56-year-old was convicted of being co-chair of the grassroots alliance “Democratic Society Congress” (DTK) and for “leading a terrorist organization”. In mid-October there was a sentence of twenty months’ imprisonment against the former member of parliament for alleged terrorist propaganda in 2012 and 2013. In the so-called Kobanê trial in Ankara, she faces an aggravated life sentence.