İsa Gültekin who has been imprisoned in Turkey’s Tarsus Prison for 28 years suffers from metastatic cancer, yet Turkish authorities refuse to release him.
İsa Gültekin was sentenced to an aggreviated life sentence in 1993 by a State Security court (known as DGM) and he is currently jailed in Tarsus Prison, located in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin,
Established under the 1982 Constitution by the then military government, the DGMs have been controversial courts in which political activists were targeted as they were referred to these courts accused of organised crime and crimes against the “security” of the state.
The DGMs were formally abolished in 2004, but the political prisoners, who were once tried in these courts still suffer from the controversial penalties these courts imposed upon them.
Now aged 67, İsa Gültekin has 18 months to be released, but as the tumor in his pancreas and gall bladder spreads to his whole body his family has demanded his urgent and immediate release.
“As his health condition worsened each day, he was also diagnosed with diabetes. Since his health increasingly detoriated, they have transferred him to Mersin Sate Hospital in November 2020 and he was diagnosed with Malignant Neoplasm,” said Aziz Gültekin, İsa Gültekin’s son in an interview with Mesopotamia Agency.
“Since he was not able to reach adequate medical aid in prison conditions, his disease has worsened and spread all over his body and he has lost 25 kilograms in eight months,” Aziz said.
Despite the life-threatening emergency he faces, Turkish authorities refuse to release İsa Gültekin.
“My father underwent a false treatment due to a wrong diagnosis of the doctors at first. And now the tumor spread all over his body. Yet they keep him in prison. We want him to be released or at least to pay his remaning penalty at home by means of a home detention,” Aziz said.
“The ministries of health and justice should not remain silent in face of such a situation,” Aziz added. “They should take a step before my father dies.”
