'Prisoners' right to conditional release violated'

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Meral Danış-Beştaş has filed a parliamentary question concerning the claims that prison administrations arbitrarily prevent conditional releases of prisoners.

As part of a new practice that has been in effect since January 1, prison administrations evaluate prisoners' situations to determine whether they have good conduct. However, the MP said, some prisoners who fulfill the conditions for a conditional release are not considered to be in good conduct by arbitrary decisions.

A prisoner at Samsun Bafra Prison, Emrullah Kezer, told Danış-Beştaş that four prisoners who had stood trial in the same case and received the same sentences as him had been released while he was still in prison, the MP said.

The prison administration had told his family that "He is a terrorist, he will never benefit from conditional release," according to Danış-Beştaş.

Kezer had been given disciplinary penalties for taking part in hunger strikes but had no other punishments and had been eventually deemed to be in good conduct, she noted.

"Keeping a prisoner in prison without a decision and the prison administration's statement that the prisoner was 'not released because he is a terrorist' indicates arbitrary practices," she remarked.

The broad authority given to prison administration and supervision committees leads to arbitrary decisions according to types of crimes, birth places of prisoners or their identities, Danış-Beştaş said.

The MP asked Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül whether Kezer's claims were true and how many similar cases were there. (TP/VK)