Turkey must release political prisoners: Human Rights Watch

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s Human Rights Watch (HRW) Director Emma Sinclair-Webb has called for the release of prisoners regardless of their political affiliation in the face of a potential coronavirus outbreak in overcrowded prisons.   

Turkey is currently mulling legislation that would free as many as 100,000 of its 300,000 prisoners to avoid the spread of the virus in prisons. The potential bid excludes thousands of political prisoners who are imprisoned for terrorism or crimes against the state.

“Terrorism may sound like the gravest of offenses, but in Turkey, the government misuses the charge for political ends. Many inmates are placed in lengthy pretrial detention or sentenced without evidence that they committed violent acts, incited violence, or provided logistical help to outlawed armed groups,” Sinclair-Webb said in a Monday statement.

The draft bill is expected to come before the parliament within the week, and is expected to pass, requiring a simple majority to be adopted.

Amid the measures, prisoners who half served at least half of their sentence may be released early, and house arrest or parole granted to pregnant women and those over 60 with health conditions.

“All efforts to reduce the prison population at this time are welcome, but such measures cannot become a tool for targeting political prisoners. Parliament should reject any discriminatory exemption of terrorism prisoners and sick prisoners who have applied for postponement of sentences. It should make sure that decisions on early release of all prisoners are non-discriminatory ,” the statement added.

Artists, as well as journalists, academics, and civil society figures have been swept up in the Turkish government’s crackdown following the Gezi Park protests of 2013 and the attempted coup of July 2016. Many of them have been imprisoned on terror-related charges.

Inmates have claimed they are not being provided with cleaning products, says the advocacy group who visited various prisons in the Marmara region upon the onset of the novel coronavirus.

Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul has said that no prisoners have been found to have coronavirus, according to Al-Monitor.