Kurdish political prisoner Burhan Karatei died in a Turkish prison, Kurdish rights activist Laila Goffen said on Tuesday.
This comes at a time of increasing human rights reports expressing concern and concern about the situation of detainees in Turkish prisons, which indicate the increasing number of deaths among detainees and prisoners, and the deterioration of health conditions in general, and the refusal of the prison administration requests for treatment of many prisoners and detainees suffering from diseases .
Heart attack
Karatei, 67, who has been in detention for nearly four years and is suffering from several diseases, was reported to have suffered a heart attack Tuesday at Kersuny prison, which led to his death.
The pro-Kurdish news agency Furat quoted Ishmael, the son of Burhan Karatai, whose trial was in prison, as saying that his father had contacted him five months earlier and told him he needed treatment and that the prison administration did not allow him to do so. A report on his father's severe medical condition, but not released.
Prior to his death from the heart attack, Burhan Karatai, a former member of the municipality of Basid, was suffering from a number of diseases, including high blood pressure and heart attack, where he had already suffered four heart attacks.
hunger strike
On the other hand, Kurdish Laila Govin, a representative of the Democratic People's Party and detained in a Turkish prison, declared a hunger strike on Wednesday after the prison administration refused to bring her to court for her objections to being handcuffed during the transfer.
Laila was elected as Hakari's deputy during the June 24 elections. The court refused to release her despite her immunity from arrest. The court also rejected her lawyer's request for her release.
She was arrested in late January after criticizing Turkey for military intervention in Syria, and prosecutors demanded her being held between 17 and 31.
According to a report by the Stockholm Center for Freedoms, the Turkish authorities arrested about 6000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party, including 43 members of the municipal council and 101 members of the provincial council, while 53 are still in detention.
The deterioration of the conditions of Turkish prisons
Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, at least 58 suspicious deaths have been recorded in Turkish prisons, according to the Center for Human Rights in Turkey.
According to other international reports, the conditions of the Turkish prisons worsened during the period of declaring the state of emergency in the country after the failure of the coup attempt, while activists and human rights organizations warned of the deteriorating health conditions of prisoners in a number of Turkish prisons overcrowded since that period.
Prisoners suffer from poor and deteriorating health conditions, and detainees and sick prisoners do not receive basic health care and are deprived of the most basic, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedoms.
In a study entitled "Deaths and suicidal suicides in Turkey," the Center reported that there has been an increase in the number of suspicious deaths in Turkey, most of them in prisons and detention centers, where torture and ill-treatment are almost systematic.
In most cases, the Turkish authorities conclude that the cause of death is "suicide", without independent and effective investigations.
The center pointed out that 123 suspicious deaths occurred in Turkey until September 2018.
According to a report submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the Turkish Parliament a few months ago, the number of prisoners and detainees reached more than 246,000. They are in about 450 prisons with a total capacity of 211,000 prisoners. The prison burden is very high and the "prison surplus" A prisoner and a detainee.
It is noteworthy that the Turkish authorities have isolated about 170 thousand judges, teachers, police and civil servants since the coup attempt in July 2016, while questioned the Turkish Ministry of Justice, in December 2017, more than 169 thousand people and subjected them to legal proceedings on charges of planning the coup.
