MALATYA - Erdal Tuncel, brother of imprisoned Kurdish politician Sebahat Tuncel, has not been released even though he has served his sentence for a year. Father Fahrettin Tuncel said: " They implement psychological pressure on the prisoners ."

 

Erdal Tuncel (42), the brother of the former Co-Chair of the imprisoned Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Sebahat Tuncel, has not been released on the grounds of the reports given by the Prison Administration and Observation Board, although he has completed his 13-and-a-half-year prison sentence. Tuncel, who is being held in Bolu Type F Closed Prison, completed the execution of his final prison sentence on March 16; however, Tuncel's release was blocked due to the report of the Prison Administration and Observation Board with the justification that "he did not leave his friends, he used water and electricity too much". Tuncel, whose execution was postponed 3 times, 3 months each, and whose detention was examined for the 4th time on December 14, was not released on the same grounds.

 

HIS RELEASE WAS DELAYED FOR THE 4TH TIME

 

Stating that he went to Bolu Prison with great excitement after Sebahat Tuncel's meeting, father Tuncel said: “I went to the prison with excitement, to get Erdal. Erdal's sentence was over, but his release was delayed for 3 months each time by the Prison Administration and Observation Board. This would be the 4th assessment. Since this is the fourth, we were expecting it to be dropped. But when I went to the prison, they said that his release was postponed for previous reasons. The next day, we had a meeting with Erdal. When we talked to him, we learned that he was not aware of the developments. He was waiting to be released with hope in Erdal. Besides Erdal, two detainees named Osman Aslan and Seyfettin Bahar were expected to be released on the same day, but they did not release them either."

 

'PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURE IS IMPLEMENTED IN PRISONS'

 

Describing what happened in the prisons as "terrible", Tuncel said: "The scene I saw inside was really scary. They implement psychological pressure on the prisoners. It is the breaking of hope. This is the reason for the recent increase in suicides. Psychological pressures are applied to the prisoners there. By creating hopelessness, they are trying to drag the prisoners into a dead end. If there is any reason to prevent the release of the prisoners, the prisoners will accept it and this would be a source of consolation, but preventing their release without any reason is intended to demoralize them and create despair."

 

THERE IS DISCRIMINATION

 

Stating that prisons have turned into “Hitler camps”, Tuncel said: “This needs to be prevented. A strong community needs to be formed. Prisons are normally supposed to be places of reintegration, but now they have turned into places of torture. The execution law is a law specifically enacted against the Kurds. It is not applied to other segments as it is applied to political prisoners. This is discrimination. It is a policy of marginalization in society. These policies are of no use to either the Kurds or the Turks. The peoples living in Turkey need to live in unity and togetherness, not discrimination. For this, the rule of law must be ensured. If the law is different for one and different for the other, it creates unrest. These practices should be abandoned.”

 

MA / Ömer Akın