İSTANBUL - Çetin Yıldız, who was released from Tarsus Prison on March 17, drew attention to the pressure in the prison and the attitude towards ill prisoners, and said that the determination to fight is kept together and standing.

 

Çetin Yıldız, who was detained on charges of "being a member of a terrorist organization" while studying at a university in Kırşehir in 2016, was released after a 3-day detention period. Yıldız, whose investigation was decided not to be prosecuted, was detained again on a similar charge in a raid on her house in Istanbul on May 5, 2017. Yıldız, who was held in police custody for 13 days, was arrested on the same charge and sent to Kırşehir Type E Closed Prison.

 

Yıldız, who went on a hunger strike against the practices of the prison administration, was later transferred from Kırşehir Prison to Tarsus Prison. The 9 years and 9 months prison sentence given at the 4th hearing held on January 26, 2018 was overturned by the 3rd Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals on the grounds that an excessive sentence was given; thereupon, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison in the retrial at the Kırşehir Heavy Penal Court. The Court of Cassation, which was appealed again, reversed the decision once again on the grounds that the "good conduct" reduction was not applied in its decision on March 17, and gave the decision to release.

 

Çetin Yıldız, who was released from prison after the decision of the Supreme Court, spoke to our agency about his practices in prison and the process.

 

POLICY OF EXPORT

 

Stating that they went on a hunger strike against the oppression and bullying of the Kırşehir Prison administration, Yıldız stated that both he and his friends were transferred to other prisons against their will after the strike. Yıldız said: “Most of us were sent to places far from the cities where our families are. The purpose of this is to torment those who carry out the Kurdish freedom struggle and to break the ties with the family because every exile was the beginning of a new torture."

 

RIGHT TO TREATMENT

 

Stating that he did not have many health problems in prison due to his young age, Yıldız said: "The ill prisoners in the prison were not taken to the hospital and their right to treatment was usurped. Medications are given after your current health problem has passed. Some of the drugs would be different. Medicines are not free, you have to buy them yourself. In other words, prisoners do not benefit from their right to treatment in any way.”