“We will not allow our children to die in prison”

A rally of the initiative “Solidarity with the Prisoners” has been banned in Istanbul. The Turkish police blocked the rally site in front of the Yenibosna Forensic Medicine Institute in advance, citing a ban on assemblies by the Bahçelievler district governorate as the reason.

HDP MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu and members of the initiative, most of whom are relatives of prisoners, protested against the police action and described the ban as arbitrary. They held signs demanding the release of sick prisoners. One sign read: “Isolation kills, solidarity keeps alive”. The relatives declared: “Our children are dying. Seven prisoners have died within a month. We will not allow our children to die.”

The police pushed back those present and used violence to prevent journalists from filming.

Hundreds of sick patients in Turkish prisons

There are hundreds of sick people in prisons in Turkey who are not receiving medical treatment and who are not granted parole despite their obvious inability to be detained. The most well-known case is currently the former HDP MP Aysel Tuğluk, who has been held as a political hostage in the Kandira Prison for over five years and can no longer care for herself due to dementia. The coroner’s office is increasingly acting as a political institution of the Erdogan regime, preventing the release of Aysel Tuğluk and many other imprisoned opposition figures by certifying that they are allegedly fit to be detained.

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