Diseased Convicts Hope for Pardon - Before Death

Diseased convict Serap Şimşek has been at the infirmary of the Bakırköy (Istanbul) L Type Prison for eight months.

Akli became mentally ill in prison and is not able to use the right side of her body since she suffered a stroke.

After that, Şimşek fell ill with bowel cancer. After her last operation the wound was kept open. She is now resting at the infirmary with her hands cuffed so she cannot touch her intestines. She is in too bad a condition to undergo surgery again.

Şimşek received a life sentence because she killed her husband. She has been imprisoned since 2008.

Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Malatya MP Veli Ağababa visited Şimşek in prison. Subsequently he announced to forward the issue to the Ministry of Justice and President Abdullah Gül who till now only granted pardon to criminal convicts.

"34-year-old Şimşek is constantly talking about her 15-year-old son", Ağababa said.

Transferred to hospital and back to prison

Şimşek was transferred to the Bakırköy Hospital for Mental and Neurological Diseases but was then taken back to prison stating that "medical treatment can be provided in prison", Ağababa summarized.

He reported that Şimşek was brought to hospital again on Thursday (22 March) and that he was going to support her to obtain legal aid and apply for a report from the Forensic Medicine Institute.

No pardon for political prisoners

On 26 January 2012, President Gül annulled the remaining sentences according to Article 104 of the Constitution of convicts Muhittin Taş, Kısment Genç and Erol Bozsüt due to their constant state of illness as determined by the Forensic Medicine Institute and also the sentence of Hayati Ekinci because of his constant state of illness and disability.

Lawyers of convicts and human rights defenders had criticized President Gül for applying double standards for political and criminal convicts, saying that criminal convicts were granted pardon but no pardon was granted to political convicts.

Most recently, Gül annulled the sentence of 73-year-old criminal convict Yakup Aygün on 6 March "due to permanent illness and disability".

Report for "immediate release" came after death in prison

47-year-old Gülay Çetin passed away in prison in July 2011.

Çetin was a convict at the Antalya L Type Prison and was ill with fourth stage cancer. In a letter written one year prior to her death she wrote that she wanted to be released. "I want to meet my family alive", she wrote.

One month after her death, the report from the Forensic Medicine Institute arrived at prison stating that "she cannot stay in prison; her sentence has to be suspended and she has to be released".

Lawyer Süleyman Çetin put forward that they applied to the president for her pardon and that his client passed away while they were waiting for the report from the Forensic Medicine Institute.

211 prisoners severely ill

According to the report of the Human Rights Association (İHD), 211 ill detainees and convicts are severely ill. 32 of them are "fatally ill". The illnesses encountered most often in prisons are the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, cancer and schizophrenia.

Data of the Turkey Human Rights Foundation (TİHV) 2011 revealed that twelve detainees and convicts died in prison on the grounds of diseases. (AS/VK)