Nuray Çevirmen from the IHD underlined that deaths in prisons are preventable and that failure to prevent them is a crime against humanity.
According to the findings of the Human Rights Association (IHD), there are 1,517 ill prisoners, 651 of whom are seriously ill. Many ill prisoners get reports saying that they are fit to stay in prison from the ATK (Forensic Medicine Institute), but deaths continue to come one after another.
According to the data of the IHD, 47 detainees lost their lives in prisons in the first 8 months of 2022, as a result of the fact that ill detainees continue not to be released. In the past week, while three prisoners, Ibrahim Yıldırım, Mehmet Candemir and Bazo Yılmaz, lost their lives, another prisoner, whose name is unknown, died in prison, according to the information given to ANF by Nuray Çevirmen, an executive with the the IHD.
The treatment rights of prisoners are denied. Prisoners held in Maraş Türkoğlu No. 1 L Type Closed Prison said in a phone call with their families that they were beaten and put in a cell because they did not accept to be handcuffed during medical examination.

651 seriously ill prisoners

Emphasizing the urgent need to release critically ill patients, Nuray Çevirmen said: “As the Human Rights Association, we already have a prison-based work activity. We published a report in April on the rights violations in prisons. According to this report, the number of ill prisoners was 1,517. Of these, 651 are seriously ill. We demand the release of seriously ill prisoners and their uninterrupted treatment. We demand the elimination of some special applications. For example, the inability to transfer the prisoners to the hospital by prison vehicles, plus the elimination of the imposition of handcuffed examinations, rapid referrals, not delaying the examinations, and ensuring humane living conditions.”

Since the beginning of the year, 47 prisoners have died

Nuray Çevirmen said that many ill prisoners have lost their lives since the beginning of the year, and underlined that ATK makes decisions based on political motives. Çevirmen continued: “As far as we have been able to determine, from the beginning of the year until today, 47 prisoners have died. These, and I want to stress this, are the deaths we have been able to record, because there are many deaths that we are not aware of. According to the data of the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses, there are 314,502 detainees in prisons, and it is not possible to reach all of them. In the last week, two out of the four prisoners who died suffered a sudden heart attack, while the other two died from serious illness. There are many seriously ill prisoners, who are older, have many chronic diseases, have cancer, have lung disease, are unable to continue their life on their own, and are disabled. There are seriously ill prisoners trying to survive in the prison with difficulties. It is truly a shame on humanity that these seriously ill prisoners are not released and kept in prison. The fact that the Forensic Medicine Institute makes decisions with political motives causes these prisoners to stay in prisons. And the prisoners who stay in jail unfortunately lose their lives due to these serious diseases.”

Failing to prevent death in prison is a crime against humanity

Nuray Çevirmen underlined that deaths in prisons are preventable and that failure to prevent them is a crime against humanity. “All deaths in prisons are preventable. If they are not prevented but actually provoked, it is a violation of the right to life and the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. In short, we can call it a crime against humanity. For this reason, we demand that these rights violations be ended as soon as possible, that seriously ill prisoners be released, executions postponed, and that ill prisoners stay with their families until they recover.”[1]