Activists in Amed demand release of sick prisoners

Diyarbakir 78’ers Solidarity and Research Association organized a press briefing on prisoners who are supposed to be released.

Several other non-governmental organizations and administrators of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) attended the press briefing organized by the association.

Hüseyin Barış, co-chair of the 78’s Association, raised concern over the situation of the sick prisoners and the prisoners who are not released despite serving their sentences.

“Prisoners die in Turkey’s prisons. We have rights. We do not want our children to die in prison. It is neither legal or humanitarian, nor conscientious that prisoners die in jails,” Barış said.

Barış stressed that keeping prisoners who have been behind bars for 30 years is ‘unacceptable’. “These people are convicts. Some of them have already finished their sentence, yet the authorities do not release them. What is the reason for this? Moreover, the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) says that some cannot stay in prison. However, they are not released. This is beyond incarceration. No human being or society will accept this. You put our children and young people into prisons and release them after they get very old. However, they have their families and relatives. Most importantly, they have hopes.”