Released Journalist Hüseyin Aykol Talks About His Prison Days

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Shortly after the Judicial Reform Package has entered into effect, the execution of journalist Hüseyin Aykol's arrest has been halted. Aykol was released from Sincan Type F No 2 Prison on October 26.

CLICK - A Journalist Who Has Served His Life in Prison: Hüseyin Aykol

Aykol was arrested in July 2019 after his prison sentence was upheld. Expressing the demands and problems of inmates while he was working as a journalist, Hüseyin Aykol has spoken to Beritan Altan from Mezopotamya Agency (MA) about his four months in prison.

'Right to do sports and have a talk prevented'

Aykol has underlined that inmates of Type F prisons cannot benefit from several rights such as their right to do sports or have a conversation:

"For instance, you have the right to do sports only once a month and it - somehow - coincides with your day of visitation. In that case, you have to choose either the visitation or sport activities. They schedule a search at any time and hour they wish. You can engage in no activities during the search. The day just goes by. And, can you compensate for it - say - the day after? No, till next month... And who knows what will happen till next month?

"I have seen 5-6 prisons. Like Mamak... It was a military prison and, in that period, people would say that Diyarbakır Prison was the worst and Mamak was the second worst. We were beaten everyday. There was pressure everyday, but we could still remain cheerful inside. But, in a Type F Prison, one needs to hold really firm to maintain their mental health.

'You are not given the books you want'

"The number of things that you can bring inside is determined, like three trousers and two shirts... They have a list for that. According to prison rules, on special occasions such as birthdays and new year, presents sent from outside are allowed into prison. For instance, that present can be a book. We used it on the occasion of my birthday. Each inmate can keep 10 books.

"If your visitor brings a book or if you will take a book from the library, you cannot exceed this limit. It is easy for those in Ankara. But, there are also people whose lawyer and family can come for visitation once in a month or year. They used to be more flexible, but it is quite a problem today. There are also good books in prison library, but the ones close to the state ideology and religious books are in the majority. You want a book by Aziz Nesin, they tell you that they currently do not have the book. To me, they are not given."

'Newspapers not given, I filed a lawsuit'

Aykol is also a columnist for daily Yeni Yaşam. Indicating that his newspaper was not given to him in prison, Aykol has continued as follows:

"While our newspaper was bought in prisons in some period, in another period, the State of Emergency was declared or something else happened and its purchase was stopped upon a written or verbal instruction of the minister of justice who said 'Don't buy it.'

"The State of Emergency was lifted, the newspaper has entered the prison again, but you have to wage yet another struggle to take it each time. I filed a lawsuit after I realized that the newspaper was delivered to prison, but not taken by them. The Judgeship of Execution has ruled that 'it can be taken in'. They were going to bring the newspaper, then I have been released.

"The Court of Cassation will perhaps uphold the [prison] sentence. If it reverses the verdict and returns it, the judge who gave the sentence in the first place can rule for another sentence. We have been temporarily released. Considering the course of trials and procedures of returning from the Court of Cassation, we will be outside in winter. I can enter prison again in summer. In that sense, we have been released from only there."

'We have been released as a gesture to Europe'

Aykol has indicated that they have been released from prison by the ones who think that "Let's release a couple of journalists... We will borrow money from Europe, we will improve relations with the EU. A huge amount of money is necessary especially for the settlement of refugees in Syria. Buildings will be constructed, we will have to ask for money from them again."

Within this context, Aykol has concluded, "We have been released from prison as a gesture to Europe. And temporarily... I mean, we do not know whether the signal given by the government to the judiciary will change or not after 2 or 5 months." (EMK/SD)