Rights violations against political prisoners in Turkish prisons continue to escalate. At Bolu F-Type Closed Prison, which has repeatedly been at the center of such allegations, abuses against political prisoners have reached the level of torture. According to information shared by prisoners, their families, and lawyers, releases are being blocked on arbitrary grounds, disciplinary penalties are used as tools of pressure, and access to healthcare as well as social and cultural activities is systematically restricted. Human rights defenders stress that these practices should be assessed within the scope of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment and have issued calls for urgent intervention.
Lawyer Sevgi Karakoç, a member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), described the situation at Bolu F-Type Closed Prison in remarks spoke to ANF.
Karakoç said: “While there have been numerous rights violations at Bolu Prison recently, the most serious among them is the shift to single-cell confinement. Prisoners serving aggravated life sentences would normally be held in three-person cells, yet in recent months, except for those who are severely ill, they have been transferred to single cells, amounting to complete isolation.
Individuals such as Enes Taşkın, Abdürrahim Pamuk, Ümit Doğanay, and Uğur Doğanay are currently being held in solitary confinement. Although Ümit Doğanay and Uğur Doğanay are brothers, the prison administration does not allow them to share the same cell. Previously, even those held along the same corridor had a limited chance to see one another during shared yard time. At this stage, that possibility has been entirely eliminated. The administration has deliberately set different yard schedules as part of a policy aimed at psychologically ‘breaking’ the prisoners.”
The right to communication is being obstructed
Rights violations against political prisoners in prisons continue to escalate. Sevgi Karakoç said that the right to correspondence, one of the most basic means through which political prisoners maintain contact with the outside world, is being obstructed through arbitrary practices, drawing attention to ongoing violations.
Sevgi Karakoç said: “Another continuing rights violation is the arbitrary blocking of the sending of Ihsan Balkaş’s Kurdish-language letters on the grounds that the prison administration claims they are ‘not understood.’ The prison administration has stated that these letters can only be sent if they are translated into Turkish by a sworn translator, with the cost of translation imposed on the prisoner.
Letters that Ihsan Balkaş sought to send to his lawyer and to a member of parliament, with the aim of informing the public and relevant authorities about serious rights violations inside the prison and arbitrary extensions of sentences, have been systematically blocked by the prison administration. These letters were confiscated on vague and arbitrary grounds such as ‘endangering institutional security,’ ‘organizational communication,’ ‘containing information about other prisoners held in the institution,’ ‘targeting the institution,’ and ‘causing public alarm.’
This practice constitutes a clear violation of the prisoner’s right to communicate and correspond in his mother tongue. It openly violates freedom of expression and communication guaranteed under Articles 26 and 28 of the Constitution, as well as freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A prison administration cannot block letters on the pretext that they are not understood, nor can the cost of a sworn translator be imposed on the prisoner. These letters were written to document grave rights violations inside the prison, convey them to the public, and exercise the right to defense. However, the prison administration has seized these letters under the pretext of ‘causing public alarm’ in order to silence these realities and criminalize the pursuit of rights.”
Releases are being systematically blocked
Sevgi Karakoç said that the Administration and Observation Board at Bolu F-Type Closed Prison is acting through arbitrary decisions against political prisoners and is systematically blocking releases with the motivation of re-punishing prisoners.
Karakoç stated that the release of 14 prisoners serving life sentences has been blocked, including Ali Murat Çelik, Aydın Adıyaman, Ahmet Karakaya, Ömer Okul, Ramazan Vural, Turan Uysal, Tuncay Doğan, Ramazan Kıran, Nurettin Ataman, Abdülhamit Ahraz, Serhat Öztürk, Maruf Türkan, Ahmet Abdi İbrahim, and Hikmet Akbaş.
Karakoç said that releases had previously been postponed in three-month intervals and that a six-month postponement practice has recently been introduced. She added: “We see that releases, which were previously postponed in three-month intervals, are now being delayed for six months, and that some prisoners’ releases have been extended for the sixth time and others for the eighth time. The boards assess whether prisoners are of ‘good conduct’ by taking into account past disciplinary penalties. In addition, releases are postponed on arbitrary and speculative grounds, extending as far as the assumption that a prisoner maintains ties with an organization because they did not conserve electricity.
At Bolu Prison, prisoners are being forced to make written or verbal requests to ‘renounce the organization.’ It has been established through concrete examples that prisoners are subjected to a political loyalty test in the form of a ‘statement of remorse.’ Even the ward or cell in which a prisoner is held is being used as a justification for extending sentences.
It has been determined that decisions are taken at Bolu Prison without face-to-face meetings with prisoners, through ‘copy-and-paste’ rulings that are circulated collectively for signatures, resulting in sentence extensions. The rejection of objections lodged by prisoners and their lawyers against the Administration and Observation Board’s decisions, dismissed without reasoning by execution judgeships and high criminal courts, eliminates the right to an effective remedy. This practice arbitrarily blocks prisoners’ access to freedom and nullifies the right to a fair trial.”
Practices threatening the right to life have become widespread
Sevgi Karakoç said that practices threatening the right to life of political prisoners have become increasingly widespread in prison. Karakoç also said:
“There are around 110 political prisoners held at Bolu F-Type Closed Prison. Of these, 22 are serving aggravated life sentences, while many others are serving life imprisonment. These 22 prisoners have been incarcerated for at least 30 years. Under current conditions, it has become almost impossible for them to remain in good health due to the prison’s physical conditions, difficulties in accessing medical treatment, and the administration’s persistent and negative stance on transfers. Many are cancer patients, have suffered organ loss, previously experienced brain hemorrhages, live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and are of advanced age. Bolu F-Type Prison is among the prisons with a high number of severely ill prisoners.”
Karakoç continued: “For example, people such as Hayati Kaytan, Mehmet Çağlar, Mehmet Akpolat, and Abdulvahap Kavak are serving aggravated life sentences and are also severely ill prisoners. These prisoners submit transfer requests to other prisons in order to access healthcare more easily. However, the prison administration rejects these requests.
A concrete batching plant is currently being built next to the prison. The dense dust and particulate matter emitted by this facility inevitably have a negative impact on the prisoners. Abdulvahap Kavak suffers from lung cancer and COPD. The dust has worsened his condition, to the point that he has to attend lawyer visits wearing a mask. A transfer request was submitted for Abdulvahap Kavak, yet despite medical reports, the prisoner’s transfer was denied. Following the Ministry of Justice’s rejection of these applications, an appeal was filed with the Administrative Court, but no response has been received so far.”
Access to healthcare is being obstructed
Sevgi Karakoç said that access to healthcare for sick prisoners is being restricted through administrative and de facto barriers, and stated:
“At Bolu F-Type Closed Prison, healthcare rights have effectively been eliminated. Because a significant number of prisoners have been incarcerated for many years, the health problems they face have reached serious levels due to inadequate hygiene conditions, difficulties in accessing clean drinking water and healthy food, as well as the inability to obtain medication and access treatment. We can speak about the health conditions of some ill prisoners whose cases we have been able to document.
Hayati Deniz Kaytan, for instance, has an illness that could be treated at certain hospitals, yet his transfer request has been rejected by the administration. He has a medical report indicating 60 percent disability related to his hands and feet. He has a brain tumor and developed epilepsy following brain surgery.
In conclusion, the issues we have raised unfortunately reveal only one aspect of the prison’s reality. Although a so-called process has been discussed for nearly a year, it is clear that it has not been reflected at Bolu F-Type Prison in any way. In a situation where severely ill prisoners continue to face serious obstacles in accessing treatment and where the execution of sentences for many prisoners is arbitrarily postponed multiple times at monthly intervals, it is evident that the so-called peace process has done nothing to improve or transform the prison’s harsh conditions.”