Women prisoners denied medical treatment

29 January 2012


Jailed journalist Zeynep Kuray wrote new article exposing violation of prisoners' rights

Commanders at Bakırköy Closed Prison for Women and Juveniles continue to display arbitrary attitudes towards political prisoners.

Following the harassment of KCK prisoner Songül Çelik, who was arbitrarily denied medical treatment by a male prison commander who didn’t leave the examination room during Çelik’s treatment on January 5, cardiopath and kidney patient Yasemin Karadağ has been denied medical treatment by the prison authorities this time.

DHKP/C (Party and Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of the Turkish People) prisoner Karadağ was subjected to a series of unlawful mishandling when she demanded to be put in the same vehicle with political prisoners, not ordinary prisoners while being taken to Bakırköy state Hospital for treatment.

Ill prisoner Yasemin Karadağ  was on 11 January beaten and put in a solitary cell following the order of a woman commander who accused Karadağ of being a terrorist.

Prisoner Karadağ who has difficulty in walking because of her disease was beaten by soldiers who acted on orders by a woman commander of the prison. Karadağ, dragged along on the ground while being taken from the vehicle to the examination room, was brought back to the prison without getting examined because of the woman commander who told the doctor that Karadağ was one of the terrorists in the prison.

The provocation by the prison’s commander met the protest of the political prisoners in Karadağ’s ward who wrote a complaint petition against the woman commander named Çiğdem (surname hidden by the prison’s administration).

KCK prisoner Songül Çelik, who faces the risk of cancer if not ensured medical treatment for the masses in both her breasts, was in the same way brought back to the prison without receiving any treatment at Bakırköy State Hospital where the prison’s male commander didn’t leave the examination room and thus prevented Çelik’s treatment by the doctor on January 5.

As well as paying no attention to the privacy between patient and doctor, the commander also violated the Triple Protocol Regarding the Treatment of Detainees and Prisoners which says that soldiers should stand at a distance which will unable them to see and hear the patient during the examination of a detained person.

Çelik, noting that she had submitted a complaint petition to the prison administration, underlined that the prison administration and the doctor would be responsible should her disease progress and her health worsen.

Zeynep Kuray is one of the 35 journalists in prison since December 20. She was arrested along other 49 media workers in the context of the so called KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) operation. She is in Bakırköy Prison for Women and Juveniles from where she sent this article.

ZEYNEP KURAY - ANF * / ISTANBUL

ANF NEWS AGENCY