İHD’s special report “Recommendations on Amendments to the Enforcement Law Concerning Sick Prisoners” incorporates the association’s findings on rights violations faced by sick prisoners. In light of these findings and upon the statements of the Ministry of Justice that new steps would be taken to address the issue, a “Public Perception Study on Conditional Release and Handcuffed Medical Examination” was conducted by our association. The results of this survey reveal that the majority of the people in Turkey support the release of sick prisoners and are against handcuffed medical examinations.
The report concludes that Turkey’s Law No. 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences and Security Measures does not comply with prisoners’ rights regulated internationally, thus, particularly its incompatibility with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) adopted on 17 December 2015 should be eliminated.
The report also holds that Law No. 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences is in violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey and domestic law and that the fundamental rights of prisoners are ignored.
İHD’s reasons for the amendment of Law No. 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences are presented in all its dimensions. In particular, it is concluded that there is a serious incompatibility between Law No. 5275 and the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) in terms of the principle of the legal benefit protected. In addition, it is found that there is discrimination in the enforcement of sentences in terms of various crime groups defined in the Enforcement Law.
The report concludes that Law No. 5275 on the Enforcement of Sentences is incompatible with the case law of the ECtHR as well and that regulations should be introduced especially in terms of the right to hope.
One of the findings of the report shows that especially sick prisoners convicted of criminal offenses under the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) face discrimination by the misuse of the ATL and therefore the problem gets even more serious.
The report finally concludes that fundamental amendments should be introduced to Articles 14, 16, 17, 25, 36, 57, 63, 72, 89, 107, 110, Annex 1, Provisional Articles 2, 6 and 9 of Law No. 5275 and Articles 5 and 17 of the ATL should be abolished.
Click to read the full report in English: SR2022 Nov_ Sick Prisoners and Enforcement Law