According to report by the Anatolian Agency, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek revealed that a total of 258 convicts were pardoned by the President from the period he took office until Februay 6, 2006 and the 180 strikers among them were all from left-wing organisations.
Cicek made the disclosure on in Parliament in reply to Justice and Development Party (AKP) Manisa Deputy Huseyin Tanriverdi's written motion asking for information on "the diseases cited as reason for the convicts whose penalties have been abolished by President Sezer and the offences these convicts committed".
The Minister said in his reply that other than the 180 prisoners who suffered from WKS and were pardoned, 18 had their sentences abolished due to disability and senility, 11 due to kidney failure and the remaining due to various other diseases.
The Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a form of brain damage that results from severe malnourishment defined as acute deficiency of thiamine. It causes childlike behavior and balance problems in walking together with lack of attention and by the time amnesia and psychosis has occurred in patients, complete recovery is unlikely.
Over 120 Dead
According to the Solidarity Association of Prisoners' Families (TAYAD), a total of 122 prisoners have so far died in Turkish prisons in an active resistance that started in the year 2000 against isolation of convicts and poor confinement conditions.
The greatest single loss of life was recorded on December 19, 2000, when prisoners launched a protest against F-type prisons and isolation and a consequent intervention by security forces left behind 28 dead inmates and convicts.
Since October 20, 2000, a chain action dubbed "Death Strike Resistance" has claimed the life of more than a hundred prisoners who have starved themselves to death, often in small teams.
On May 1, 2006, the 13th "team" of protestors named the Cengiz Soydas Death Strike Team started a hunger strike to death with TAYAD support somewhat coinciding with reports that on the 339th day of her own death strike launched on June 26, 2005, Serpil Cabadan was moved from the Gebze M type prison she was held in to local State Hospital for forced intervention.
This month, on June 10, TAYAD launched a campaign of 30 day hunger strikes throughout European countries to support the plight of those in prison in Turkey and attract international attention to the deaths and ongoing actions of protests.
Claiming that other than those who died in prison at least 500 more were left crippled due to forced nutrition, a TAYAD statement issued on June 7 demanded for isolation conditions to be lifted in Turkish detention and captivity centres and an end be put to the deaths of convicts. (II/YE)
