Mehmet Ali Taşlı (58), who was detained and arrested in Amed in 1994, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the State Security Court (DGM). Taşlı was held in Konya Ereğli High Security Prison and was expected to be released on 21 December, but his release was postponed for one year by a decision of the Prison Administration and Observation Board.

 

Speaking to the Kurdish-language news agency Ajansa Welat, Mehmet Ali Taşlı's sister Gül Taşlı stated that her brother had spoken to them on the phone on 18 December (yesterday) and said: "We were getting ready to receive him. But unfortunately he called yesterday and said that his sentence had been extended by one year. My father waited for my brother's release, counting the minutes and seconds. We were waiting anxiously, they broke our hope. We have been waiting for thirty years."

 

OBJECTION FILED

 

Gül Taşlı stated that her mother died longing to see her son and said: "My mother died longing to see her son, my father is old and ill, we thought maybe he would go out and spend some time with him. That didn't happen either. We know that oppression is injustice. The lawyer filed a petition for the cancellation of the decision and made an objection. We want the authorities to take this objection into consideration. Prisoners who have completed their sentence should be released."