The Gülen movement-affiliated Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF), which is based in New York, has expressed its concerns on “the clear trend of increasingly ‘high-profile’ detainees among those dead in suspicious circumstances in places of deprivation of liberty.”
Releasing a report titled “Death in Custody- Right to Life in Turkish Prisons“ the JWF stated that “In particular, the family members of police officers and members of the judiciary who have in the past investigated high-level cases of corruption or other wrongdoing by individuals close to the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party), have long shared concerns that their loved ones in prisons would become the next victim.”
Over the last two years, the JWF has documented the death, under suspicious circumstances, of at least 60 individuals deprived of their liberty in the context of “measures undertaken against the coup plotters.”
Therefore, the JWF has urged the international community to ensure the protection of individuals who are at risk of arbitrary deprivation of their life because of unlawful actions in Turkish prisons by state agents acting on behalf of the Turkish government.
The JWF also called on the international community to address, as a matter of priority and importance, the deteriorating human rights situation in Turkey, including in relation to the arbitrary deprivation of life in Turkish prisons, through relevant and appropriate United Nations, Council of Europe (CoE) and other international and regional mechanisms as well as through country visits and bilateral diplomatic engagement.
The JWF strongly urged Turkish authorities to respect and ensure the right to life of persons within their jurisdiction, including when such persons are held in custody and also urged them to organize all state organs and governance structures through which public authority is exercised, including law enforcement agencies, security forces and the military, in a manner consistent with the need to respect and ensure the right to life.
The JWF also strongly urged the Turkish government to ensure adequate conditions of detention for all those deprived of their liberty, including adequate medical care, and to conduct prompt and independent investigations whenever a person dies in custody.
Stating that since a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government have gone to the extreme many times by declaring that Gülen movement members do not have a right to life and will beg for death in prisons, the report said, “He and members of his government have repeatedly and publicly discussed the idea of reinstating the death penalty specifically for the members of the Gülen Movement.”
“While the reinstatement of the death penalty may not be legally feasible and would in turn further isolate Turkey, an avenue that the authorities seem not to be willing to follow, the analysis of this increasingly concerning issue and also empirical evidence show that the same “result” is been pursued through extrajudicial executions, both in places of deprivation of liberty and in the streets of Turkey, in suspicious circumstances and also through enforced and involuntary disappearances,” said the JWF report.
