Of perhaps the greatest concern is not who the new law lets out of prison, but who it keeps in. While rights groups have welcomed some of the new measures to keep inmates safe from coronavirus, such as alternative incarceration or home arrest for those over 65, those with pre-existing conditions and female prisoners with young children, political prisoners have been very clearly overlooked. The overcrowded cells and filthy conditions he experienced in first Mus and then Trabzon prison could lead to coronavirus killing many in the Turkish system, the 29-year-old said. “This attitude explicitly displays the government’s intentions: common criminals will be released but the political prisoners will remain behind bars,” said Veysel Ok, co-director of the Media and Law Studies Association, a non-profit legal defence organisation. “This [decision not to free political prisoners] at this time, in a way, is equivalent to a verdict of death penalty.”

Source: The Guardian March 31, 2020 17:53 UTC