The main Istanbul office of the Forensic Medicine Institute of Turkey (ATK) has issued a report for Aysel Tuğluk, the former co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and deputy chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), saying, “It is possible for her to live her life alone”.
The report issued for Tuğluk said: “It is possible for her to live her life alone, and to be kept in prison conditions if she is provided with treatment and regular health checks at recommended intervals…”. In line with the report, the Kocaeli office of the State Prosecution also rejected the request made by Tuğluk’s lawyers for her release.
Ümit Dede, lawyer and co-chair of the HDP’s Law and Human Rights Commission, issued a written statement.
“A committee report was prepared previously by the Forensic Institute of Kocaeli University, stating that ‘her disease is chronic and progresses with time, there may be problems with the amount of medical support and care that can be provided in prison conditions, it will not be possible for her to live alone in the conditions of the penal institution and therefore the execution of her sentence should be postponed’. After this report, the Istanbul office of the ATK issued a conflicting decision about her,” he said.
On 5 September Aysel Tuğluk’s lawyers made a public statement demanding that the Turkish Council of Forensic Medicine urgently report on Tuğluk’s medical condition.
The decision of the ATK was announced after the statement of the lawyers, MA reports.
Dede commented that the decision of the ATK was a political decision and said that the HDP will appeal it. He continued:
“We her lawyers and the HDP Law Commission will follow her case and demand clarification of the obvious discrepancy between the reports of the Kocaeli and Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institutes. We will fight for Aysel Tuğluk’s rights until we get results. In this context, we inform the public that an appeal has been submitted by her lawyers to the Supreme Council of Forensic Medicine as of today. The ATK’s decision regarding Aysel Tuğluk is a political one, and we do not accept it.”
Aysel Tuğluk was arrested along with seven other politicians on 29 December 2016, when she was deputy co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). She is held in Kocaeli Type F Prison. She has been in prison for nearly five years having been sentenced to ten years on a charge of being a “leader of an organisation” in 2018.
