Main opposition CHP calls for Kurdish politician, ill prisoner Aysel Tuğluk’s release
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Republican People's Party (CHP) Adana Provincial Organization Chair Mehmet Çelebi has made a call for Aysel Tuğluk's release from prison.
It is announced that jailed Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk, also a former Vice Co-Chair and MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), is having a memory loss and the Faculty of Medicine of Kocaeli University has given a report documenting that she is not in a state to stay in prison.
In the face of her continued imprisonment despite this report, main opposition CHP's Mehmet Çelebi has made a call for her release:
Ill prisoners are, most of the time, abandoned to their fate; they are noticed if there is intense public pressure when [their illnesses] come to an incurable point or they lose their lives behind bars deprived of health and care service opportunities. Several prisoners come to harm like this in such a way that they cannot regain their health again. Aysel Tuğluk, still arrested despite the reports saying that she cannot stay in prison, should be released before further deterioration of her health and it should be ensured that she has living conditions suitable for her treatment.
What happened?
On December 29, 2016, when she was the Vice Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk was arrested along with seven other politicians from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Democratic Society Congress (DTK).
The indictment filed against Tuğluk, who was the DTK Co-Chair till September 2014, brought her statements to the press as well as the funerals that she attended as criminal evidence against the politician.
On March 16, 2018, the Ankara 17th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Aysel Tuğluk to 8 years in prison as per the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) no. 3713. Increasing this prison term by half, the court then gave a 12-years prison sentence to the politician. Lastly, it has decreased this prison sentence by one sixth and ruled that she shall be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
As Aysel Tuğluk's appeal to the Ankara Regional Court of Justice was rejected, her file was sent to the Court of Cassation.
Her mother's funeral
Aysel Tuğluk's mother Hatun Tuğluk lost her life in 2017. Upon her last will, her deceased body was brought to the İncek Cemetery in Ankara. Aysel Tuğluk left prison by permission and her mother was laid to rest; shortly afterwards, a group of 5-6 people gathered to protest the funeral.
The ones who attended the funeral said that this number gradually increased and they tried to attack the grave.
As the attacks continued, the deceased body of Hatun Tuğluk had to be removed from the ground and laid to rest somewhere else. One of the people who attacked the funeral turned out to have a picture with Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu at the police station.
Health problems
Aysel Tuğluk's elder brother Alaattin Tuğluk said that his sister had a memory loss after their mother's passing:
My sister didn't look fine. She asks the same question 3-4 times. She doesn't remember some things. For instance, when she wants to ask about someone from the family, she says, 'Who was that, who?' They are close people, it is impossible for her to not know them. I am concerned that this will come to an irreversible point and that we will lose my sister... I want treatment before it is too late. Let another committee examine her and give a decision accordingly. She is given 1-2 medications now. It is not enough. She will go [to jail] after her treatment ends.
About Aysel Tuğluk
Politician.
She was the founding member and Co-Chair of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and elected Diyarbakır MP in 2007-2009. She became the Van MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in 2011-2015. She served as the Vice Co-Chair of the HDP responsible for Law and Human Rights.
Aysel Tuğluk was also a member of the Society and Law Studies Foundation Executive Board, a member of the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the founder of the Patriotic Women's Association.
Born in Elazığ in 1965, she graduated from the Faculty of Law of İstanbul University and worked as a self-employed lawyer. (HA/SD)