Two Paralyzed Prisoners and One Prisoner Who Does Not Have Hands Stay in Same Cell

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Abdullah Turan, who is paralyzed from the neck down, Serdal Yildirim, who is paralyzed from the waist down, and Ergin Aktaş, who has no hands, are being held in the same cell in Metris Type-R (rehabilitation) prison and left to look after each other.

Lawyer Gulizar Tuncer has spoken to bianet about the condition of Ergin Aktaş, Serdal Yıldırım and Abdullah Turan, who are on the Human Rights Association's (İHD) 457-people list of seriously ill prisoners.

Tuncer told us about the problems Turan, Yildirim and Aktaş face in daily life.

Forced to look after each other

"24-year-old Abdullah Turan is paralyzed from the neck down, lying motionless. His body is bruised because he is lying down all the time.

"Serdal Yildirim is paralyzed from the waist down. Ergin Aktaş does not have hands. He also has COPD and tuberculosis.

"These three patients are put in the same cell and forced to look after each other.

"These three prisoners are severely ill and require special treatment.

"But right now all three of them have been thrown into a cell that is narrow and filthy. Let alone a sick person, even a normal person can't stay there. They are sentenced to live in a 12-square-foot, airless and unhygienic cell.

"Ergin is suffering from tuberculosis and has a right to have fresh air for an hour a day as he was given an aggravated life sentence. But he is prevented from using it because that one hour coincides with the lunch hour.

"They are forced to clean the cell themselves. Cleaning officers clean the room with a dirty mop and emit a foul smell into the room. They are therefore forced to clean themselves.

"They even have to do their laundry themselves. Because all the machines are broken. We spoke to the manager, he acknowledged that the machines had broken down. He said they had been waiting for allowances for quite some time and that didn't come.

"The boy without two arms chews the laundry with his feet. Serdal, who is paralyzed from the waist down, squeezes it with his hands. That's how they do their laundry. Abdullah is already lying on his back, unable to move at all."

Nutrition is inadequate

"While the three prisoners' hygiene and nutrition conditions should be very good, their nutrition is also very inadequate. They are given very little food, meaning they go hungry. The manager attributed this to the paucity of the subsistence allowance.

"Ergin is vomiting blood all the time. He is in such a bad state that he is now vomiting blood in the form of clots. In inhumane conditions, these people are left to die. This clear torture.

"The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Article 3, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) resolutions and the Constitution states that an execution process cannot be transformed into an inhuman punishment. But here it has turned into a blatant inhuman punishment, and it is blatant torture.

"They feel left to die. Abdullah Turan was in pain when he was brought to the meeting on a stretcher. He couldn't stay long, he said, with the wounds on his body opening.

"But they're all worried about their other friend. Abdullah, for example, said he fears Ergin would die. He said he is constantly fainting, unable to breathe and vomited blood. When Ergin arrived, he said that he feared Abdullah would die, and that he gets up at nights and controls his breath."

"A torture center"

"People are subjected to psychological torture in this way and that's where it happened, a rehabilitation center. It is where the sick prisoners, whose condition is most severe, are kept under treatment and supervision.

"But even the physician sees prisoners only if the prison administration needs them. Nurses also come in situations where they need dressing.

"There are also reports from the coroner that these three prisoners cannot remain in prison. Under normal circumstances, when there is a report from the Institute of Forensic Medicine (ATK), the execution of the sentence must be delayed or, if the person is arrested, he or she must be released by a court order. If the file is at the Supreme Court of Appeals, the prisoner must be ordered to be released immediately.

"But decision-makers are ignoring the report and looking at whether these people are a danger to community safety. Ergin, for example, received reports from the ATK four times and was rejected four times. We applied for the fifth time, it will probably be rejected again.

"In addition, Type-R prisons are prisons established for the most severely ill prisoners who require special care and treatment, who no longer have the opportunity to live in other prisons.

"But these prisons, in their current form, have become a complete torture center." (RT/VK)