Ill prisoner is awaiting response from Constitutional Court

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Suffering from cancer, prisoner Ali Osman Köse made an application to the Constitutional Court and demanded the deferment of the execution of his sentence. While Köse is now awaiting a response from the Constitutional Court, a cancerous tissue has been diagnosed in his kidney. He also suffers from high blood pressure and chronic cardiac dysfunction.

According to the data of the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are at least 1,605 ill prisoners in Turkey's prisons; 604 severely ill.

'Early diagnosis is very important'

Speaking to bianet, lawyer Seda Şaraldı from the People's Law Bureau says that ill prisoner Köse was taken to the attorney's visitation in a wheelchair. The lawyer shares the following information:

"The Forensic Medical report was issued on February 4; but, on January 27, a Köse had an x-ray and cancerous tissue was diagnosed in his kidney. Early diagnosis is important for cancer. If a real examination had been carried out, we could have known that our client had cancer.

"The current stage of the disease that he is suffering now is the result of the systematic torture, isolations and deprivation of treatment opportunities that he was subjected to in the 1990s. The failure to undergo this surgery might lead to his death. Our requests for halting the execution of his sentence has been rejected because of this report.

"We made an application to the Constitutional Court, saying that he should be released as a precaution; but, the Court has not yet responded to this application. What Ali Osman Köse is going through tells us a lot about the conditions of ill prisoners in prison. The release of the client is important in terms of both his own right to health and that of all ill prisoners."

He is 65, in prison for 37 years

Held in the Tekirdağ Type F Prison, 65-year-old Ali Osman Köse has been behind bars for 37 years.

After he started having health problems in early 2020, first the physician of the prison, then the physicians at the Tekirdağ Public Hospital examined him; he was sent back without any treatment.

As he was still having health problems, this time, he was referred to the Health Board of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University. The Board issued a report concluding that he was in a state to stay in prison on his own. Köse, then, applied to the Forensic Medical Institution via his attorneys.

On February 4, 2021, the Forensic Medical Institution gave a report saying that "he was exaggerating his disease by showing simulative behavior with the aim of benefiting from his disease."

Following this report, the attendant of Ali Osman Köse, who has been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, was taken away.

'Even hard to do daily tasks'

Joining the protests for the release of Köse, Hasan Basri Yıldız from the Association of Assistance and Solidarity with Prisoners' Families (TAYAD) gives the following information about his condition:

"Ali Osman Köse is a prisoner who lived through tortures before the military coup on September 12, 1980, on September 12, during the death fasts in 1996 and in the period of December 19 massacre. He has been incessantly in prisons for the past 37 years. For him, it is even hard to maintain his and his ward's cleaning, prepare food and do his daily tasks." (İK/AS/SD)