The prison administration of Kandıra high security prison in Turkey has refused to hand a Kurdish political prisoner the book he wrote, saying the content of the book would be “motivating” for the prisoner, Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.
The autobiographical book ‘Always in the Fight’, written by the imprisoned Mehmet Alçınkaya, was published in February.
In his message from prison, Alçınkaya noted that there has been no legal action against the book’s distribution and sale, yet the administration continued to deny him a copy of his own book.
“It is apparent that they have been disturbed by the fact that prisons may well turn into places of production, and they are trying to stop this. They cannot stand the fact that we will not give up struggling, thinking and producing. Well, I’d like to let them know that I’ve always been in struggle, and I always will,” he said.
MP and prominent human rights defender Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu called the prison administration to discuss the issue, but when no one from the administration took the call he contacted a senior official from the ministry of justice and conveyed the information, MA said.
Alçınkaya is incarcerated in Kandıra high security prison in Turkey’s western province of Kocaeli.
In a similar case, another political prisoner named Resul Kocatürk was earlier denied a copy of his own book by the administration of Kirikkale high security prison. Kocatürk, imprisoned for 28 years now, was told by the administration that the book has been assessed as “inappropriate”.
