Force Feeding and Prison Transfers

Taken from Halkin Sesi (Voice of the People) TV's website.

A number of people on the Death Fast are continuing to be transferred from prisons to hospitals. Yet another resister who was subjected illegally to forcible medical intervention has lost his memory.

Irfan Aslan, who has been on the Death Fast in Kocaeli F-Type Prison since June 2001 in protest against isolation, has lost his memory and lost control over his muscles, according to a report by the Judicial-Medical Association. However, a delegation from Istanbul No 2 DGM (State Security Court) which examined the report turned down a request to release Irfan Aslan, who is suffering from Wernicke-Korsakoff disease, on the pretext that they have no authority to grant such a request, despite the existence of legislation providing for the release of sick prisoners.

Irfan Aslan's lawyer Mihriban Kirdok drew attention to previous cases where courts released prisoners who were approaching death and said the laws were to be implemented according to "situations arising with regard to the intellect and conscience".

Twenty-two resisters in the cells who are continuing the Death Fast as part of the 5th, 6th and 7th Teams and whose condition has worsened have been removed to various hospitals in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmit.

The Death Fast resisters in Sagmalcilar State Hospital Erkan Altin (Tatli), Ahmet Ozdemir, Kemal Yarar, Berkan Abatay, Ramazan Oktulmus and Mehmet Karaman have been removed to Sisli Etfal Hospital; Hasan Aydogan, Murat Aslan and Aydan Odabas have been removed to Haseki Hospital; Meryem Altun has been removed to Kartal State Hospital.

There cannot be the slightest doubt now that the authorities released some prisoners earlier in an effort to break the resistance and not because they were thinking about the prisoners' lives!. Even in the matter of releases, the authorities have displayed all manner of arbitrariness.