DİYARBAKIR - Underlining that she has been missing her father for 26 years, Selma Özkan, daughter of ill-prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan, said: "We get anxious everytime the phone rings thinking that it's bad news. I wish he could come back home in his last days."

 

83-year-old seriously ill prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan, who was given a life sentence for the events that took place in Diyarbakır's Lice district on October 22, 1993, was not released again at the hearing held at the Adana 7th High Criminal Court on March 17. The reason why Özkan was not released from Diyarbakır Type D Prison, was that he was not able to make it to the room to attend the hearing via sound and video information system (SEGBİS) due to his deteriorating health and the fact that the Lice Case held at the İzmir 1st High Criminal Court has not been concluded.

 

SHE IS HOLDING ON TO LIFE WITH HER SON

 

Özkan who was arrested in 1996 as a result of the statements of two confessors with the accusation of 'being a member of a terrorist organisation' and sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, is in prison for the last 26 years. He had 5 heart attacks during this time. He also suffers from high blood pressure, goitres, osteoporosis, hearing-vision deficiency and memory loss. Özkan, who cannot even meet his daily basic needs due to his illnesses, is accompanied by his son named Ahmet, who is held at the same ward.

 

Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital Health Board reported that 87 percent of Özkan's bodily functions were dysfunctional and that he "could not stay in prison" in 2015. Despite the report, Özkan was not released. Even though he was admitted to the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) many times after that however the result did not change. ATK prepared a report every time that says he could "remain in prison".

 

HE CAN NOT SPEAK TO HIS CHILDREN

 

Özkan's daughter, Selma Özkan, spoke about her father's health, which she last saw on Monday when she visited him in prison. Noting that his father was brought in a wheelchair, Özkan said, "My father has lost his memory. He takes 5-6 different medication a day. He is taken to the hospital every day. He can neither hear us nor talk to us. When we want to say something to him, we first convey it to my brother. He is not in a position to meet even his most basic needs. My brother meets all his needs."

 

HADCUFFED TO THE BED

 

Reminding that his father was taken to Istanbul many times to get a report from the ATK, but they could not get any results and her father was tested positive for Covid-19 as a result of these trips, Özkan told that her father tested positive for a month after that, not being able to get better. Özkan said, "He was getting worse, so he had to be hospitalized. He was taken to the hospital in handcuffs. This was not enough. Although he was unconscious in the hospital, his hands were cuffed to the bed. My father was not conscious for 7 days. We wanted to be there, but we weren't allowed. We could only look at him from behind the door. When I saw my father, he was unconscious and handcuffed to the bed.

 

'A SYMBOLIC COURT'

 

Stating that the perpetrators of the Lice Case is known but his father is not released anyway, Özkan said: "They set up a symbolic court for my father. They stall us with different excuses like they could not find a translator and send him back to his cell. Because releasing my father will mean that he was imprisoned all this time for nothing and that the Lice Case was a lie.

 

UNKEPT PROMISES

 

Özkan, who wants her father to be released, pointed to the ATK reports and said, "ATK could have asked the prison administration about my father's health and learned the truth. Previously, the ATK had given a report that 'he could remain in prison' for Halil Güneş. But Güneş lost his life in prison." Recalling the meeting they held in Ankara for the release of ill prisoners during the "peace process", Özkan said, "We were promised that the ill prisoners would be released. However, the promises were not kept. Finally, ill prisoner Güneş lost his life. There is no justice in Turkey. If there was justice in Turkey, he wouldn't have spent 30 years in prison and those who have served and completed their sentences would be released. ATK releases ordinary prisoners or FETÖ prisoner but when it comes to releasing political Kurdish prisoners, ATK leaves them to dead in prison."

 

SHE MISSES HER FATHER FOR THE LAST 26 YEARS

 

Underlining that they don't want coffins coming out of prisons, Özkan called for the release of her father. Özkan said: "He would have died already if my brother wasn't there with him. I have been missingmy father for 26 years. I get anxious everytime the phone rings, thinking it is bad news. I am dying every day. I wish he could spend his last days with us in our house."

 

 

MA / Mehmet Güleş