Following the demise of prisoner Koçer Özdal (65), who was seriously ill, and lost his life at the intensive care unit of a hospital while his hands and feet were handcuffed, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ayşe Acar Başaran has called Turkish government to stop causing the death of sick prisoners.
Özdal lost his life on August 27 in Ankara Numune Hospital since July as he was receiving treatment in. Özdal had been referred to the hospital on July 19, 2018, from the Samsun Bafra Prison for the treatment. He was placed in the intensive care unit on August 13 and lost consciousness on August 24 after the doctors saw that cancer had spread throughout his body. However, Özdal was reportedly held handcuffed to the bed until his death.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had ignored a campaign launched by human rights organizations for the release and treatment of Özdal.
According to a report by pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency (ANF), following his medical condition deteriorated under dire prison conditions, Koçer was asked by prison authorities to write a request to be taken to the infirmary although he could not read or write, and was kept in solitary confinement while his health worsened.
Despite the human rights organizations, his family, and the HDP had repeatedly called for his release from the prison, Özdal was held in prison and he was finally delivered in a coffin to his family from the prison that he had entered in 2014 as healthy.
“Aside from the principles of justice, human rights and universal law, no institution, state or person with a conscience should have allowed Koçer’s preventable death”, said HDP deputy Başaran in a statement that she made on the behalf of HDP.
The statement continued to say that “In the last 17 years 3,503 sick prisoners have lost their lives in Turkey’s prisons. It is clear that the Turkish government continues to ignore these deaths. Sick prisoners are being handcuffed and forced to travel in prison vehicles, and prison infirmaries prefer to evade prisoners demands instead of offering them treatment.
“It is no wonder that no permission to investigate is issued regarding criminal complaints against the misconduct of officials. If the Turkish government continues its current practices, 1,154 sick prisoners, including more than 402 prisoners in serious conditions, may share Koçer Özdal’s fate.”
The statement has concluded with a warning to the Turkish government: “End your unjust, conscienceless, unlawful practices, and stop obstructing the sick prisoners’ access to health rights and their right to say goodbye to their families. Stop causing the death of citizens you are obliged to serve.”
The post Pro-Kurdish HDP calls Turkish gov’t to stop causing death of sick prisoners appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/pro-kurdish-hdp-calls-turkish-govt-to-stop-causing-death-of-sick-prisoners/
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