A Turkish court denied the release request of seriously ill 84-year-old Kurdish prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan on Thursday. Özkan is currently held in prison for his alleged involvement in the killing of a Turkish brigadier general in 1993 in Kurdish majority Diyarbakır’s (Amed) Lice (Licê).
According to medical reports, continued imprisonment without proper treatment puts his life at risk. His lawyers argue that his health requires urgent medical attention.
Özkan suffers from multiple health issues. He has experienced five heart attacks and undergone four angiograms since his imprisonment.
Özkan was the only person sentenced in connection with a 1993 military operation, known today as the Lice Massacre. The military operation was carried out in response to the shooting and killing of Brigadier General Bahtiyar Aydın.
The court case of the operation, in which at least 14 civilians were killed and numerous houses in the district were badly burnt, was recently dropped, 30 years later, on the grounds that there were no longer any surviving defendants.
Özkan was tried separately for the murder of the brigadier general and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the witnesses who testified against Özkan later retracted their statements, saying that they had been given under torture. Özkan’s request for a retrial was accepted, but he has remained in jail for 27 years.
