Families and lawyers of Turkish prisoners are demanding their release over worries of deadly novel coronavirus contagion.
The demands have come as Turkey’s health ministry announced on Sunday that detected cases in the country rose to 18.
As authorities in neighboring Iran, one of the epicenters of COVID-19 outside China, decided to release nearly 54,000 inmates temporarily, and riots broke out in Italian prisons, families of prisoners in Turkey started to gather in front of the country’s penitentiaries to demand the release of their loved ones.
Turkey’s prisons are overcrowded due to mass arrests that have followed a July 2016 failed coup.
According to the Justice Ministry, the country’s prisons had a 218,950-inmate capacity and an estimated total inmate population of 286,000.
This situation creates the perfect conditions for the virus to spread, according to the World Health Organization, as crowded indoor gatherings are being canceled WHOworldwide.
In a bid to contain the spread to the penitentiaries Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul announced that all visits to inmates have been canceled for two weeks.
Ilhan Ongor, a lawyer and a spokesman for the Human Rights Association, a rights advocacy organization in the country, said that government measures do not focus on protecting the inmates.
“The inmates with serious health conditions should have their terms postponed because the status quo prevents them from getting adequate medical care. Overcrowding exacerbates worries over contagion,” Birgun daily quoted Ongor as saying.
According to Human Rights Association statistics, in December, there were 1,334 sick prisoners in the country’s prisons; 457 of them were in serious condition.
Turkey quarantines thousands of pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia
The post Overcrowded Turkish prisons spur COVID-19 worries – Families demand release appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2020/03/16/overcrowded-turkish-prisons-spur-covid-19-worries-families-demand-release/
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder