Political prisoner Hulki Güneş has been released after 32 years in Turkish prisons and returned to his home village of Sazlica (Qerqerût) in Varto (Gimgim).

The sixty-year-old Kurd was greeted with applause by a large crowd. Among those celebrating was his 98-year-old mother Zekiye Güneş. The reception resembled a Kurdish wedding, with people dancing for hours.

For the past 32 years, Hulki Güneş has been incarcerated in prisons in Muş, Amed, Tekirdağ and most recently in Izmir-Aliağa, from where he was released on Friday.

His release had been postponed several times due to disciplinary sanctions. In Turkey, people sentenced to life imprisonment are usually released after thirty years. Release is decided by so-called monitoring committees of the respective prisons. These committees are made up of employees who have no legal expertise but can nevertheless decide on deprivation of liberty measures.

In the case of political prisoners, release is in many cases made dependent on an expression of remorse. In the case of Hulki Güneş, the fight for his release went through several legal instances until the Constitutional Court finally granted an application by his defense attorney Sedat Akbal. Güneş’ brother, Yakup Güneş, was released last year after spending thirty years in prison.