HDP demands Parliamentary debate on ill prisoners

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Group Deputy Chairs Meral Danış Beştaş and Saruhan Oluç have submitted an inquiry demanding a general debate at the Parliament. They have requested that a solution be developed for the violations of right to health and life suffered by ill prisoners.

According to the data shared by the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are at least 1,605 ill prisoners, 604 of whom are seriously ill.

'Arrest is not a punishment, but a measure'

The inquiry of the HDP Parliamentary Group Chairs has indicated the following about the prison conditions and their effects on ill prisoners:

"When ill prisoners are considered, the fact that arrest is a 'measure' is disregarded and no initiatives have been taken to ensure their release pending trial. Arrest is not a punishment, but a measure.

"For this reason, prioritizing alternative sanctions for ill prisoners is indispensable for protecting the right to life.

"However, unfortunately, ill prisoners, who have to spend - perhaps the last days of - their lives with their relatives, are tormented in prisons in an environment which is deprived of all suitable conditions for hygiene and health, where there are no necessary and adequate health facilities and where there is no psychological support."

2,300 prisoners lost their lives in 8 years

The inquiry has stressed that the penal legislation must be amended urgently. "The failure to introduce various mechanisms that will enable the deferment of ill convicts' execution means imposing an aggravated execution of their sentences on ill prisoners," it has noted.

"According to the data shared by the Ministry of Justice with the public last year, in eight years since 2009, 2 thousand 300 arrestees and convicts lost their lives," the inquiry of the HDP has indicated.

The HDP Group Deputy Chairs have also raised concerns that "the insufficient number of sick rooms in prisons, the late transfers to hospitals, medical examination in handcuffs, law enforcement officers' presence during medical examination and ill prisoners' inability to access a diet in accordance with their needs aggravate the problems of ill prisoners further."

'Other sanctions must be brought up'

Within this context, the HDP has also referred to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic conditions, which have affected the entire world for over a year now. The party has underlined that "it has become an important agenda to not leave ill prisoners at risk."

Accordingly, the HDP inquiry has said, "In the event that a suspect or defendant is released upon a report issued by a fully-fledged hospital, a training and research hospital or a university hospital, indicating that he or she cannot stay in prison, the measure of arrest must not be imposed on the suspect or defendant; alternative sanctions must be brought up for convicts." (AS/SD)