UN Officials Visit Lawyer on Death Strike

A delegation from the United Nations (UN) Working Group established by the Commission on Human Rights on Arbitrary Detention visited Turkish lawyer Behic Asci on the 194th consecutive day of his hunger strike launched to protest prison conditions and isolation of inmates and convicts.

Asci gave a detailed explanation of the isolation conditions faced by prisoners held at Turkey’s special F-type compounds while lawyers of the Solidarity Committee Against Isolation gave delegation members their own accounts.

The visit to Asci, who continues his hunger strike in Istanbul and on behalf of the rights of his clients took place Sunday evening. The UN group led by judge Leila Zerrougui consisted also of judge Manuela Carmena, Secretary Miguel De La Lama and Ulrich Garms.

Asci stressed to the delegation that his protest was not linked to his own demands but that it was an expression of the demands of his clients. He described his hunger strike as a “death strike” and reiterated that isolation conditions imposed on captives at F-type prisons in Turkey were in clear contradiction to human rights.

He said he had achieved no result from all of the attempts he made to end this contradiction inclusive of administrative and judicial appeals but that the isolation system itself had intensified in the meantime.

During the half-hour interview with Asci, the delegation concluded that the lawyer’s acts and his reasons fell within the scope of interest of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions and listened to the conditions the attorney described.

14 years imprisonment unbelievable

Following the visit to Asci, members of the delegation held talks with Lawyers of the Solidarity Committee Against Isolation that was attended by five Turkish lawyers.

Layer Bahri Belen and lawyer Taylan Tanay gave the group information on the condition of political prisoners, the conditions under which they were being held and the trial process.

Tanay's mentioning that one of her clients had been in prison for 14 years came across as unbelievable to the delegation who were told this was not an isolated case.

The meeting also addressed the situation of Ercan Kartal who has been held for 11 years at an F-type prison as the single occupant of a cell. The delegation took note of the court hearing Kartal’s case alone with the case number and the Turkish lawyers were told his situation would be looked into.

The lawyers also asked the visiting UN group members to make urgent initiatives to end prison deaths at F-type compounds and gave the delegation a breakdown of events in the past seven years.

Noting this was not only their own request but the request of everyone living in this country including bar associations and intellectuals, the lawyers asked the UN group not to remain as an observer to the death of Asci.

One man’s fight for many

The one-man hunger strike by Asci was launched on April 5 marking the World Lawyers Day and entered its 194th consecutive day this Sunday.

The government continues to ignore his demands to address the issue of isolation of prisoners in the country's controversial maximum security F-type prisons.

Unaddressed problems at F-type prisons have so far lead to the death of 122 inmates/convicts and left behind more than 600 others crippled.

Asci, an attorney of law, declared in April this year "I am starting a hunger strike for the abolishment of isolation in prisons. I am on a hunger strike for the right to life in a country where law and justice have are being destroyed" and has since raised the support of a number of democratic mass organizations calling on the Ministry of Justice to end inhuman treatment in F-type prisons and save the lawyers life. (EZO/EO/II/YE)