Ill prisoners in Kürkçüler F Type Prison continue to be denied treatment

In Adana Kürkçüler F Type Prison, the treatment of sick prisoners continues to be prevented due to the imposition of “oral search”.

A political prisoner with Crohn’s disease, Fatih Özgür Aydın, wrote a letter about the violations experienced, and drew attention to the fact that they could not be transferred to the hospital due to this arbitrary search, and that their health conditions were deteriorating.

Aydın said that he had constant diarrhoea, that he had lost weight, that cysts appeared in his pelvis and right hand, and that his chest pains had grown worse.

‘Attempted murder!’

Aydın wrote that 5 people stayed in a 3-person ward and that almost everyone had some health problem. He said that his friend Ercan Yıldız had a herniated disc, celiac, blood pressure and heart ailments, and a friend named İbrahim Algan had stomach, eye and skin problems.

Pointing out that referrals to the hospital were prevented on the grounds of “oral search” Aydın wrote: “We are searched by the guards manually and with detectors at the exit of the cell. We were X-rayed and searched again. We are also hand searched by the soldiers, then they ask us to take off our masks, open our mouths and stick out our tongues. We say that this practice is arbitrary and humiliating, that if the problem is security, a soldier can come and look at the x-ray machine, but they do not accept it. We also say that removing our masks, opening our mouths and sticking out our tongue in times of coronavirus is actually in violation of the prevention measures imposed. This practice for us actually means an attempt to murder given our health problems.”

Aydın said that if prisoners don’t accept this invasive search they are not taken to the hospital.

Aydın said: “On the day of my trial, I came before the soldiers for a search. ‘Open your mouth,’ they said. When I refused, they let me go. This shows that in fact this practice is illegal and they don’t insist in carrying it out when we are taken to court.”

Aydın emphasized that the Ministry of Justice, the Prison Gendarmerie Battalion Command and the prosecutor would be responsible for any problem they may experience because of this mistreatment.