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Upon the news that cancer-patient Abdürrezak Suyur had lost his life in an Izmir prison on 14 December, another seriously ill prisoner, Halil Güneş, who was suffering from lung and bone cancer, was reported to have died the next day, on Wednesday 15 December, in Diyarbakır High Security Prison in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır (Amed).
Following the consecutive deaths of Suyur and Güneş, Deniz Kaya issued a statement from the prison on behalf of all the political prisoners who are jailed on charges of being members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Free Women’s Party of Kurdistan (PAJK).
“We have lost three comrades very recently, Halil Güneş, Abdulrezzak Şuyur and before them Garibe Gezer, who was killed by inhumane acts of torture that included rape and sexual assault,” Kaya said.
Kaya urged the Ministry of Justice to urgently release seriously ill prisoners, underlining that not only national authorities but also those who represent international institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Committee to Prevent Torture (CPT) are responsible for the deaths of prisoners.
“All international institutions, especially the ECtHR, the CPT, which are internationally binding institutions acting on the right to live and the prevention of torture, are also responsible for the martyrdom of seriously ill prisoners, because they failed to perform the necessary actions in time. We expect these international institutions to act as promptly as possible against the isolation, oppression, torture and death policies in all dungeons, especially in Imralı,” Kaya said.
