MESSAGE FROM LEILA KHALED
Letter to international organizations for ill prisoner, politician Aysel Tuğluk
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The "1,000 Women for Aysel Tuğluk" campaign group have sent a letter to international organizations for the Kurdish politician who is kept in prison despite being diagnosed with dementia and medical reports stating that her condition is not suitable for staying in prison.
Having collected 6,000 signatures demanding Tuğluk's release and treatment, the women sent letters to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Council of Europe, and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).
Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has released a message for solidarity with Tuğluk.
"Dear Aysel, we, the women of Palestine, send our love and solidarity. We hope that you and all political prisoners will be free as soon as possible. Keep your morale high. You will be free," she wrote.
What happened?On December 29, 2016, when she was the Vice Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk was arrested along with seven other politicians from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Democratic Society Congress (DTK). The indictment filed against Tuğluk, who was the DTK Co-Chair till September 2014, brought her statements to the press as well as the funerals that she attended as criminal evidence against the politician. On March 16, 2018, the Ankara 17th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Aysel Tuğluk to 8 years in prison as per the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) no. 3713. Increasing this prison term by half, the court then gave a 12-years prison sentence to the politician. Lastly, it has decreased this prison sentence by one sixth and ruled that she shall be sentenced to 10 years in prison. As Aysel Tuğluk's appeal to the Ankara Regional Court of Justice was rejected, her file was sent to the Court of Cassation. Her mother's funeral Aysel Tuğluk's mother Hatun Tuğluk lost her life in 2017. Upon her last will, her deceased body was brought to the İncek Cemetery in Ankara. Aysel Tuğluk left prison by permission and her mother was laid to rest; shortly afterwards, a group of 5-6 people gathered to protest the funeral. The ones who attended the funeral said that this number gradually increased and they tried to attack the grave. As the attacks continued, the deceased body of Hatun Tuğluk had to be removed from the ground and laid to rest somewhere else. One of the people who attacked the funeral turned out to have a picture with Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu at the police station. Health problems Aysel Tuğluk's elder brother Alaattin Tuğluk said that his sister had a memory loss after their mother's passing:
About Aysel TuğlukPolitician. She was the founding member and Co-Chair of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and elected Diyarbakır MP in 2007-2009. She became the Van MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in 2011-2015. She served as the Vice Co-Chair of the HDP responsible for Law and Human Rights. Aysel Tuğluk was also a member of the Society and Law Studies Foundation Executive Board, a member of the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the founder of the Patriotic Women's Association. Born in Elazığ in 1965, she graduated from the Faculty of Law of İstanbul University and worked as a self-employed lawyer. |
(RT/VK)