The state continues to keep ill prisoners in jail

The health condition of 68-year-old prisoner Ismail Yılmaz, who is in Kandıra No. 1 F Type Closed Prison, is getting worse. Yılmaz, who has been sentenced to an aggravated life sentence and is on the list of the ill detainees of the Human Rights Association (IHD), has been in detention for 17 years. Yılmaz is at risk of heart attack as well as heart failure. He also suffers from advanced prostate enlargement and blood pressure, and cannot stay on his own due to partial paralysis in his right arm. Due to the cataract in his eyes, Yılmaz also has vision problems.

Brain bleeding

Yılmaz, who had a cerebral haemorrhage on 29 April 2020, was taken back to prison after being operated on at Kocaeli State Hospital on the same day and kept in a solitary cell for 14 days for quarantine after a 7-day treatment period.

Contradictory report

The report of Kocaeli Medical Faculty Research and Application Hospital, Department of Forensic Medicine, dated 21 May 2020, said that Yılmaz should be kept under constant control and monitored. However, it also said that he “could stay in prison.”

Petition from lawyers

In the petition written by Yılmaz’s lawyer to Kocaeli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on 30 April and 11 May 2020, Yılmaz’s lawyer pointed out that there was a risk of life due to the serious illnesses he was exposed to, his age, the coronavirus epidemic and prison conditions, and demanded that his execution be postponed and released. However, Yılmaz was not released.

‘The state has chosen death’

Yılmaz’s guardian, Ibrahim Hakkı Eren, stated that there were serious violations of the right to health in prisons, and drew attention to the fact that this situation increased with the Execution Law. Eren said: “The state actually prefers that prisoners who oppose its policy die in prison. This is a very clear government policy. Recently, prisons have turned into tools of oppression, intimidation and death.”

Emphasizing that what happened in prisons is a problem concerning the entire society, Eren said: “Anyone who opposes or has a problem with this system in Turkey can go to prison in a moment. In such a reality, the entire society must raise their voices so that prisons do not turn into slaughterhouses. All left-socialist institutions or organizations urgently need to put the problem of prisons on their agenda.”