ISTANBUL -The lawyer of prisoners Ergin Aktaş, who has no two hands, stated that the state prevents the release of ill prisoners by approaching with a sense of revenge, and stated that there is a need for a social stand against the violations of rights in prison.

 

According to the data of the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are 1,517 ill prisoners, 651 of whom are seriously ill. One of the prisoners on the seriously ill prisoner list of the İHD is Ergin Aktaş, who was detained in Metris Type R Closed Prison, who was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to 2 aggravated life sentences. Since he did not have two hands when he was arrested, a report was given by the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) that he could not survive on his own in prison. Aktaş, who was not released despite the ATK's 6 times in the same direction, is also a COPD patient.

 

Aktaş, who does not have a hand by the wrist and an arm by the elbow, has been staying with Serdar Yıldırım, another patient with paralysis from the waist down, since 2019. Although Aktaş, who has no arms, and Yıldırım, who does not have a lower back, have difficulties in sustaining their lives being in the same ward, they are each other's hands and feet in prison and continue to resist.

 

THEY RESIST WITH SOLIDARITY

 

Paralyzed and heart patient Abdullah Turan, who was in the same ward as Yıldırım and Aktaş and was released on December 24, 2020 after his condition deteriorated, described how they showed solidarity in prison with the following words in an interview he gave to our agency after his release: " Serdar in a wheelchair was opening and preparing breakfasts. This is how we started the day. We created a division of labor. The administration was not cleaning our room. Although we wrote many petitions on this issue, they did not produce a solution. We were doing the cleaning. If a plate was to be washed, Serdar was washing it with his hands, while Ergin was placing this plate in the cupboard in the kitchen section with his arms. Likewise, this was also applied to washing clothes.”

 

AKTAŞ IS HELD INSIDE BY THE COURT'S PREDICTIONS

 

Aktaş's lawyer, Gülizar Tuncer, said: "Aafter the ATK's first report in 2011, we objected to our client not being released, and that the court rejected this objection on the grounds that 'there is a possibility of re-acting'. Upon this, in their objection to the court, 'How will he act again? How will he drop bombs with his non-existent arms?” After the court rejected our demands with the claim that 'Yes, he may not be able to do it himself, but he can teach his friend how to make a bomb, and he can lead them to action'. In subsequent ATK reports, my client was not released on the grounds that 'if he is released, he will make propaganda by the organization and cause indignation in the society'. Aktaş was not released on the grounds that 'he was sentenced to aggravated imprisonment and there is a ban on conditional release related to aggravated life sentences' after the latest ATK report issued on March 24, 2021."

 

'REVENGE STATE'

 

Tuncer finally said: “There is no change in the situation of the ill prisoners. There may be differences in the application. Since the past, the state has chosen to murder the revolutionaries and patriots through torture, executions, unsolved murders or extermination methods through operations in prisons. Now the state is following a different method. The state leaves the ill prisoners who have been in prison for decades to die by not treating them and not releasing them despite their serious illnesses. In fact, when we look at the mentality of the state, not much has changed. Therefore, when we act with such vindictiveness and an approach with the vengeful state tradition, a picture emerges where the dead are constantly coming out of prisons.”

 

MA / Rukiye Adıgüzel