Terminally Ill Prisoner Dies Before Coming Out of Jail
Terminally ill cancer patient Muhlis Barut died in hospital on Sunday night before he could get out of jail, despite reports that President Abdullah Gül had intervened to fulfill his request to spend his final days with his family.
Barut's sentence of 16 years and eight months was pending in the Supreme Court of Appeals.
His daughter Gönül Barut said they were waiting for a report to secure his release from prison and that authorities had refused to let them see him after they arrived in Istanbul with her mother and sibling because they did not have permission from the prosecutor's office.
Officials had sent Muhlis Barut to the Metris Prison in Istanbul from the Aegean province of İzmir to allow him to obtain a report from the Istanbul Forensics Institute.
The Justice Ministry, however, rejected his appeal to accelerate bureaucratic processes for his release.
Barut then developed gastric bleeding in prison on Saturday night, as a result of which officials transferred him to the Istanbul Training and Research Hospital in the district of Samatya.
Gönül Barut who stayed with his father in hospital said she had called the prison prosecutor and warden to get him under intensive care but that they did not respond to her request until 02:00 a.m.
"They finally took him under intensive care. His heart stopped twice, and they retrieved him, but he did not make it on the third time. My father died in disappointment. I will not let up on this issue. I can no longer believe in justice. I will file a complaint about the court and witnesses who sentenced my father to 16 years in prison. I will defend my father's rights by going all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR,)" she said.
A construction worker, Muhlis Barut started shooting at random with a hunting rifle in a public health institution after he was fired from there and his green card, a document for the uninsured, was consequently cancelled on Oct. 8, 2010.
The İzmir Second High Criminal Court then sentenced him to 16 years and eight months in prison, but his case was pending in the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Sezgin Tanrıkulu, an Istanbul deputy of the main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP,) had also submitted a Parliamentary question to Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin asking whether they had any plans to allow for Barut's release so that he could spend his final days with his family. (YY)