EU calls on Turkey to release political prisoners

Turkey's European Parliament rapporteur, Nacho Sanchez Amor, and the head of the Turkey-European Union Parliamentary Committee in the European Parliament, Sergei Lagudinsky, called on the Turkish government to include new amendments to the Political Prisoners' Penal Code without any racism.

In a joint statement released by the two European parliamentarians, the Turkish government called for the release of thousands of political prisoners inside prisons, as part of the amnesty package.

The statement said: "Turkish prisons currently contain hundreds of journalists, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, politicians, academics, human rights defenders, and artists, without any definitive evidence of conviction or involvement in any violence."

The statement stressed the necessity to fulfill the calls of the United Nations High Commissioner and the release of all detainees inside prisons to prevent the spread of Corona virus.

While many parliamentarians and human rights appeals were issued to the need for the release of detainees in Turkey to prevent their infection with the Corona virus, the Turkish Ministry of Justice took a decision to detain prison staff and prevent them from returning to their homes to prevent the transmission of the Corona virus through them to prisoners.

"As of Monday, prison staff in various parts of Turkey will not be able to return to their homes until the end of the specified period, and they will be residing in isolated areas," Turkish Justice Minister Abdel Hamid Gul said.

In Turkey, there is increasing concern about the situation of prisoners of conscience, but not including a proposal to reduce the period of penalties, which is expected to be presented to parliament, although it includes criminal prisoners.

Turkey resorted to accelerating the discussion of amendments to the length of the sentence to evacuate prisons from the largest number of detainees, fearing the spread of the Coruna virus.

The amendments stipulated reducing the requirement of early amnesty for prisoners of sexual violence and drug trafficking to be applied to those who have spent 65 percent of their punishment instead of the 75 percent currently in effect, while it does not appear that political prisoners who are usually charged with supporting terrorism "will be covered by the amnesty.

Some prisoners whose medical reports will prove that conditions in the prison threaten their lives due to a violent illness or disability will also benefit from an amendment that permits the completion of the prison sentence at home, those who have been sentenced to five years in prison or somewhat less or prisoners whose sentence was converted to prison while serving a period of a fine.

J.O