281 People Call for Justice in Criminal Execution: Stop Discriminating Prisoners!

281 writers, academics, journalists and rights defenders have denounced the draft law on criminal execution for excluding jailed politicians, journalists and rights defenders from reduced prison sentences and early release from prison.

İstanbul

281 People Call for Justice in Criminal Execution: Stop Discriminating Prisoners!

* Photo: AA - Archive

Click to read the article in Turkish

281 writers, academics, journalists and rights defenders have called on the authorities to ensure justice in criminal enforcement.

Signing a joint statement entitled "Unity and Solidarity are Exactly for Times Like This", rights defenders have criticized the draft law on criminal execution, which was presented to the Parliament yesterday (March 31).

CLICK - Sentence Reduction Bill Submitted to Parliament

Slamming the bill for excluding Anti-Terror Law, based on which politicians, journalists and rights defenders are put on trial and convicted, the signatories have raised concerns over the possible negative consequences of this exclusion. The statement has briefly indicated the following:

'We want social normalization'

"We are going through very hard times. The world has never found itself in such a difficult situation throughout our life times. Staggering amid disruptive social separations and social-political-economic crises for some time, our country is now hit by this global outbreak.

"Our people are tired and already desperate. If we ignore social emotions and needs, we will inevitably face much more nightmarish times. We have to put an end to these separations and tensions as soon as possible.

"What do we want, then? We want to live in peace and at ease with our people as a whole; in short, we want social normalization.

"It is now high time that we realized 'Unity and Solidarity', which was all talk till now. Tomorrow might be too late. We need to take a quick step. From this cloud that is called Coronavirus do we have to derive a silver lining...

'Otherwise, we cannot look each other in the face'

"When lives are at stake, there can be no differentiation based on beliefs or ideologies. We need to know that there are numerous arrestees and convicts sleeping on the threshold of Corona catastrophe for lying on the same bed with another person in overcrowded prisons.

"There are criminal offenders and there are also the arrestees and convicts labeled as 'political prisoners', some of whom have not yet even deposed to the prosecutor for years.

"A Law on Criminal Enforcement intending to discriminate them has been submitted to the Parliament.

"The state wants to release the ones who commited a 'crime' against citizens while keeping the ones who questioned its authoritarianism behind bars.

"In other words, it is about saving the former from the death while leaving the latter to die behind bars.

"In these hard days when people are having a real problem of existence and non-existence, such a law on execution, which will come to mean upgrading and aggravating social separation, is very concerning.

"Social consciousness is now being pushed a little too much. Winning the struggle against coronavirus outbreak and achieving social normalization depend on exerting the will of evacuating prisons as soon as possible.

"It depends on stopping the discrimination of the imprisoned. Otherwise, none of us can look each other in the face, be the dissident or conformable."

Signatories

Abdo Yılmaz, Abdulaziz Akyol, Abdulbaki Erdoğmuş, Abdulbasit Bildirici, Abdulcebbar Barış, Abdulhakim Daş, Abdullah Demirbaş, Abdurrahman Ayhan, Adalet Çavdar, Adnan Dinçtoygar, Adnan Tüzün, Ahmet Aykaç, Ahmet Çakmak, Ahmet Daş, Ahmet Dindar, Ahmet Gezgin, Ahmet şefik , Ahmet Öztürk, Ahmet Tonak, Ahmet Ümit, Akın Atalay, Akın Atauz, Akın Birdal, Alev Er, Ali Bilge, Ali Gökkaya, Ali İhsan Ben, Ali İhsan Dinçer, Ali Nesin, Ali Özkan, Alper Taş, Arif Kaptan, Arya Paperin Karahan, Atilla Durak, Atiye Keskin, Attila Tuygan, Ayhan Ergenç, Aydın Engin, Ayşe Erzan, Ayşe Gözen, Ayşe Hür, Ayşe Sevin Kırıkoğlu, Ayşe Uzun, Ayşe Yıldırım Başlangıç, Ayşegül Devecioğlu, Aziz Gökdemir, Babür Pınar, Baskın Oran, Bayram Erzurumoğlu, Bayram Kızartıcı, Bedrettin Gündeş, Binnaz Toprak, Bülent Bilmez, Bülent Atamer, Buket Türkmen, Burhan Sönmez, Büşra Ersanlı, Cabbar Barış, Canan Türeli, Ceren Özselçuk, Celal Başlangıç, Celalettin Can, Cemil Gündoğan, Cemal Karabil, Cemile Şaylan, Cengiz Aktar, Cengiz Arın, Cevdet Konak, Cihan Çelikkol, Cumali Uyan, Çetin Yılmaz, Daron Acemoğlu, Deniz Koloğlu, Doğan Özgüden, Doğan Gökşen, Ekrem Baran, Mehmet Emin Aktar, Emin Parlar, Enes Atila Pay, Enver Karabey, Ercan İpekçi, Ercan Özel, Erdal Doğan, Erdoğan Bayram, Erdoğan Kahyaoğlu, Ergin Cinmen, Erol Önderoğlu, Erol Özkoray, Eşber Yağmurdereli, Ethem Dinçer, Esin İleri, Esra Çiftçi, Esra Koç, Esra Mungan, Evren Altınel, Faik Bulut, Faik Burakgazi, Fatin Kanat, Fatma Bostan Ünsal, Fatma Gök, Fehim Işık, Fener Günana, Ferhat Kentel, Feyha Karslı, Feyyaz Yaman, Feyzullah Mızrak, Fikret Başkaya, Fikri Sağlar, Füsun Çeliker, Gani Alkan, Gaye Boralıoğlu, Gençay Gürsoy, Gewro Hasan, Güngör Şenkal, Günseli Baki, Gürhan Ertür, Hacer Ansal, Hakim Tokmak, Halil Ergün, Halim Bulutoğlu, Halime Demir, Hanna Beth Sawoce, Harun Kaya, Hasan Cemal, Hasan Gülbahar, Hasan Öztoprak, Hall İbrahim Yenigün, Halil Savda, Hatice Kavran, Haydar Ergülen, Hayri Bökü, Hicri İzgören, Hikmet Yıldız, Hovsep Hayrani, Hüda Kaya, Hülya Kirmanoğlu, Hüseyin Doğan, Hüseyin Acıpınar, Hüseyin Gevher, Hüseyin Habib Taşkın, Halit Erdem, Hüseyin Tecin, Hüseyin Tunç, Hüsnü Öndül, Işık Hanım Gençay, İbrahim Bilen, İbrahim Ünal, İlkay Alptekin Demir, İmdat Karatoprak, İnci Tuğsavul, İslam Özkan, İsmail Beşikçi, İsmail Cem Özkan, Jean-Pierre Dopagne, Jülide Kural, Kadir İnanır, Kampussuzlar, Kemal Ulaş, Kemal Yüksel, Kenan Yenice, Kuvvet Lordoğlu, Latif Yıldız, M. İhsan Çevik, Mahmut Karabulut, Mahmut Konuk, Mehmet Bozgeyik, Mehmet Deniz, Mehmet İnan, Mehmet Parlak, Mehmet Sanrı,Mehmet Latif yıldız, Mehmet Uluışık, Mesut Baştürk, Melek Taylan Ulagay, Metin Gülbay, Metin Uzunöz, Mihail Vasiliadis, Mine Özerden, Murat Daş, Mustafa Faik Dereli, Mustafa Güler, Mustafa Pekdogru, Mustafa Peköz, Mustafa Sütlaş, Mustafa Kaplan, Mirza Turgut, Nadire Mater, Nazım Karakurt, Nebi Ebci, Necmi Demir, Necmi Aydın, Necmiye Alpay, Nergiz Savran, Ovacık, Nesrin Nas, Nesrin Sungur, Neşe Yaşın, Nihal Saban, Nihat Bozkuş, Nil Mutluer, Nil Mutluoğlu, Nilgün Doğançay, Nilgün Saban, Nilgün Saraçoğlu, Nimet Tanrıkulu, Nuray Mert, Nurcan Baysal, Nurten Ertuğrul, Onur Hamzaoğlu, Onur Gökşen, Orhan Alkaya, Orhan Silier, Osman Dinçer, Osman Aytar, Oya Baydar, Özgür Emre, Pınar Ömeroğlu, Ragıp Duran, Ragıp Zarakolu, Ramazan Gezgin, Recep Maraşlı, Remzi Kozakçı, Reşit Canbeyli, Reşo Son, Reyan Tuvi, Rıza Karaman, Rıdvan Ayhan, Rıza Türmen, Sadık Topal, Sait Çetinoğlu, Salih Zeki Tombak, Samim Akgönül, Servet Ali Çınar, Serdar Ulaş Bayraktar, Selahattin Koçak, Semra Karadağ, Semra Somersan, Serdar Koçman, Selçuk Polat, Sicarettin Şimşek, Suat Turan, Suzan Samancı, Süleyman Eryılmaz, Şadi Özdemir, Şanar Yurdatapan, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Şeref Yıldız , Şükriye Ercan, Şükrü Aslan, Serdar Ulaş Bayraktar, Tahsin Yeşildere, Tarık Ziya Ekinci, Tarık Günersel, Tayfun Mater, Temur Taşdemir, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Tuncay Gökçe, Tunç Abanç, Türkan, T. Ruvi, Ömer Akat, Yılmaz, Ufuk Uras, Ümit Aktaş, Ümit Biçer, Ümit Kardaş, Ünal Ünsal, Veysi Dündar, Viki Ciprut, Yalçın Ergündoğan, Yasemin Bektaş, Yaşar Othan, Yeşim Dağgeçen, Yunus Bircan, Yücel Demirer, Yücel Sayman, Yücel Tunca, Zarife Çamalam, Zehra K. Arat, Zeki Sarıhan, Zeynep Tanbay, Ziya Halis...

(EKN/SD)