A delegation of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) met with Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç in Ankara on Thursday.

The delegation was made up of DEM Party Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairpersons Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and Sezai Temelli and Deputy Co-Chairperson and Co-Spokesperson of the Law and Human Rights Commission Öztürk Türkdoğan.

The DEM Party delegation made a statement after the meeting which lasted for about two hours.

DEM Party Group Deputy Chairperson Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit said that they held talks on the contributions that the ministry could offer to the process.

Koçyiğit stated: Our primary topic of discussion was the working and health conditions of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı, who opened the door to a new era in Turkey with his call on February 27 and enabled us to take a new threshold toward a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. In this regard, we told the minister that Mr. Öcalan cannot contribute to the process under conditions of isolation, that the matter of his conditions is the most important issue for the process to move forward and that these conditions must be improved without any buts. We will have the chance to witness some developments in this regard in the coming period.”

Situation of sick prisoners

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit continued, “There are very serious problems with the justice system in Turkey and we had the chance to discuss this issue in a comprehensive manner. One of the most important topics is the issue of sick prisoners. We know that the treatment they face is neither humane nor legal. We also expressed our views and thoughts regarding the implementation of necessary arrangements for sick prisoners and the ATK (Forensic Medicine Institute) reports and getting them out of prison quickly. We conveyed our demands on this issue.” 

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit stated that the legal regulation introduced during the coronavirus epidemic, which regulated the circumstances of conditional release but exempted “organized crimes” was also discussed during the meeting with the Minister. “We expressed that a truly inclusive and egalitarian approach should be considered,” she added.

The new judicial reform package

The delegation also expressed its concerns over the inclusion of some articles in the new judicial reform package, such as the article about “committing a crime on behalf of an illegal organization without being its member”. She said they demanded the unconditional elimination of this article and voiced their expectation for an arrangement in accordance with the related decision of the Constitutional Court that had previously ruled it out.

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit said they also conveyed their demand for the review and democratization of the Administrative and Observation Boards, which arbitrarily prevent the release of prisoners. The delegation demanded that all the decisions by these observation boards be made according to objective criteria. Calling the Administrative and Observation Boards “a second punishment mechanism”, the delegation demanded the inclusion of a respective article in the new judicial reform package.

'We will exchange views in the coming period'

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit answered journalists' questions after the statement. Asked about the minister's response to the regulations they asked for regarding the isolation of Öcalan and the execution law, she said, “We had the opportunity to talk about all these issues and the minister took careful note of them. Everyone knows very well that there are many unfair, unjust, unequal legal regulations. They took careful note of every topic we mentioned and confirmed that they would work on this issue. We will exchange views on this issue in the coming period. We also made evaluations on the Kobani Trial and other topics.”