Turkish authorities have denied the release of an ailing inmate for the fourth time, despite his eligibility for parole, the Artı Gerçek news website reported.
İsmail Hakkı Tursun, who suffers from high blood pressure and a hernia, first applied for conditional release after becoming eligible on August 11, 2022. The prison’s Administration and Observation Board denied his application, stating he was not “regretful enough” due to disciplinary penalties imposed for participating in hunger strikes and shouting political slogans.
Tursun’s parole was also denied on July 7 and December 13, 2023, with the most recent rejection occurring on September 25, 2024. The board postponed his release by nine months, setting the next evaluation date for June 25, 2025.
Administrative observation boards, established in Turkish prisons in January 2021, have faced criticism for arbitrarily delaying the parole of political prisoners.
Tursun experiences nosebleeds two to three times a week due to high blood pressure and frequently vomits. He voiced concerns about inadequate medical care in the prison system. “Hospital transfers are made very late. Our treatment does not progress as it should,” he said. “We sometimes face ill-treatment during hospital visits: handcuffed examinations and arbitrary searches are conducted.”
Sentenced to life in 1992 for attempting “to separate part of the territory under the sovereignty of the state from the state administration,” Tursun has been behind bars for more than three decades
Turkish authorities have also been frequently criticized for their systematic disregard of the health problems of political prisoners.
Every year rights groups report the death of dozens of sick prisoners, either while behind bars or shortly after their belated release, which often comes at the end-stage of their illnesses.
According to the Human Rights Association (İHD), there were 1,517 sick inmates in Turkish detention facilities as of December 2022, 651 of whom were critically ill.
