Eighty year old disabled prisoner Makbule Özer’s health has been getting worse, her daughter told reporters on Thursday.
Özer is serving a two year sentence over aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation, in the eastern border province of Van (Wan). She is diabetic and suffers from heart and liver issues, and is assessed to be 53 percent disabled.
“My mother has been left to die,” daughter Naime told Jin News, calling for Özer’s release. “We are on edge. An elderly person is no different than a child. My mother can’t stand this torture much longer.”
The 80-year-old has been hospitalised several times, the most recent being on Tuesday. She is one of 1,517 sick prisoners behind bars in Turkey, according to Human Rights Association (İHD) figures. The İHD is aware of some 651 prisoners whose conditions are serious, including cancer patients.
Other inmates in the prison have let the family know that Özer has been considering suicide.
Özer needs constant attention, and is currently able to see to her needs with help from her cellmates. Lack of disability accommodations has resulted in a fall in the shower, where she injured herself, according to the daughter.
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) has commissioned a report for Özer stating that she cannot maintain herself behind bars, while the family’s lawyer Dilan Kunt has taken the matter to Turkey’s Constitutinal Court.
Özer’s 79-year-old husband Hadi Özer was also arrested at the same time, after their prison sentences were finalised in May. Their daughter maintains the elderly couple are innocent, and have been persecuted “for being Kurds”.