1-month-old baby and 2-year-old child behind bars for 20 days

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Arrested on June 17, Eylem O. has been behind bars in Diyarbakır Women's Closed Prison with her 10-day-old baby and 2-year-old child.

CLICK - 'They put my 10-day-old baby in prison, she doesn't even have a name and ID yet'

Eylem O. was previously detained as part of an investigation conducted by the Lice Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Turkey's Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır province. Referred to court on June 17, she was arrested by the Lice Penal Judgeship of Peace on charge of "aiding the organization."

Arrested by the court, Eylem O. was sent to prison with her 10-year-old baby and 2-year-old child to the Diyarbakır Women's Closed Prison.

Both children have health problems

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), the mother and her two children were first quarantined for 14 days as part of coronavirus measures. They have now been taken to a ward as the quarantine is over.

While Eylem O. has asthma, her 2-year-old daughter needs to be treated for bronchitis and the baby's eyes frequently get inflamed, sometimes bleeding. The baby reportedly needs to be treated for her health problems for six months without any interruptions.

As they will be quarantined again for another 14 days after returning from a possible visit to hospital, the mother is concerned about seeing a doctor.

Worried about her children's health and lives and having written a petition to the Civil Registry so that her daughter can have an ID, Eylem O. has said that her petition has not yet been responded.

The children have been in prison for 19 days.

'It is against the law and conscience'

Emin Çoban, the chair of Diyarbakır Bar Association Children's Rights Monitoring Center, previously told bianet that there were more than 700 children in prisons with their mothers. It was legally possible to implement judicial control measures for these people in the investigation phase and postpone the execution of the sentences of the convict, he added.

"It is a universal rule of law that arrest is the last resort even under normal conditions. It is also in the Turkish Penal Code. This is a woman going through the postpartum period and we are in a period of a pandemic. How necessary was her arrest? There are many judicial control decisions. House arrest, signature obligation, electronic handcuffs and so on..."

Sending children in need of their mother's care to prison was "against the law and conscience," Çoban noted. (AÖ/SD)