With the entry into force of the Prison Administrative and Observation Board (IGK) in 2021, hundreds of political prisoners have seen their release prevented, or had to serve the full sentence without any discount. The Administrative and Observation Boards are acting as parallel courts, causing thousands of rights violations to occur.

Yusuf Çakas, a member of the Prisons Commission of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), spoke to ANF about the rights violations taking place in prisons. Çakas said, "There is a prosecutor at the head of the Prison Administrative and Monitoring Board and all the members other than this prosecutor are the prosecutor's officers. They have no chance of voting other than the prosecutor's vote. The board acts by imposing repentance on political prisoners. The real problem is that it operates like a court. It operates like martial law, Independence Courts and State Security Courts (DGM). We can say this very clearly. In the 1990s, people who were detained were held in custody for nearly 50 days and did not see their lawyers. The logic of the DGM and the IGK is the same. Establishing a court without a lawyer and holding a trial is no different from the logic of martial law."

Conditional release is being eliminated

Çakas underlined that asking someone who has been in prison for 30 years and who has not accepted any accusations other than the statement he was forced to sign under pressure and torture, 'do you regret it?' actually means refuting his 30-year claim, and continued: "The board is asking his views on the Kurdish issue. In fact, by asking such questions they have no right to ask, the prison administration, the prosecutor and the commission are acting on the basis that they know they won’t release him. Someone who has been sentenced to 6 years and 3 months should normally be released after 4 years and 8 months, but in many prisons, he is forced to serve the entire sentence. Conditional release, a legal regulation that is valid all over the world, is being eliminated by imposing the repentance clause."

Boards are also part of the lack of solution

Çakas said that the Kurdish issue continues to exist and has not been resolved, and added: "An unresolved issue will have a reflection from prisons to the streets. Boards are also a part of this. However, prisoners do not regret being Kurdish and their approach to the Kurdish issue."