A COLUMN BY S. OZTURK ABOUT IMPRISONMENT OF THOUSANDS OF JUDGES IN TURKEY

“They should be put into prisons first,” they said.

Even the name of the prison is creepy … There are about 200K detainees and convicts in prisons. The detainees’ first request is a trial without arrest. If there is no trial without arrest, preparing the indictment about them as soon as possible is their priority. For example, 129 days have passed since the arrest of the authors and administrators of the Cumhuriyet daily newspaper. Two professions in the world are directly related to human life. One is a physician and the other is a judge … The duty of physician is to put the diagnosis of the patient, to treat and to rehabilitate them. It is the duty of a judge to make the person who comes in front of him, if s/he is guilty, do the necessary thing and earn him/her on behalf of community as soon as possible.

EVEN A LAW PROPOSAL WAS OFFERED

Previous term MHP MP Özcan Yeniçeri frequently told in his speeches that “judges and prosecutor candidates should stay in prison for at least one month during the internship period”. He was not satisfied with that and also gave a law proposal. Thus he aimed to be understood what it means to be in prison by those who send suspects in front of a judge and who arrests them and their circumstances. One of many who lived prosecutors sending for arrest, the judges’ arrests and their reflection on human life, is one of the world-renowned scientists raised by Turkey, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Haberal. I listened his proposal from the period in which he was imprisoned, after his release too. He also said: “I believe that if there are rehabilitation centers, the prisons should also be a judicial rehabilitation and training centers. Let us not forget that if we find the one who has the most serious crime im front of us, s/he is also a humanbeing. During the Ottoman period, the prisons were ‘correctional facilities’. Now, the prisons are ‘solitary confinements’.

Haberal, in our conversation, “The judge or prosecutor will remember that, if a part of internship is done in prison, they will see the conditions and it should not be easy to make a decision about arrest. The decision they make is directly related to human life. They will knowmthat the whole life of that person is changing. I, as a physician, put the person who came face to face. The judge must think so. All the target must be collecting people, not isolation. ”

“If the judge does the internship in prison, Haberal will look at the conditions and remember that it is not easy for a person to make an arrest warrant. The decision they make is directly related to human life. I will say that the whole life of that person is changing. I, as a physician, put myself in the place of the man who comes in front of me A judge must think so. The whole aim must be earning people [to society], not isolation.”

THEY ALL MET WITH THE PRISON

Those proposals were not accepted, but today, one in four judges in our country are under arrest for allegedly being linked to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO). No doubt the Supreme Judiciary will decide whether or not they are guilty. However, no one accepts the accusations against them. The roof indictment concerning the July 15 coup d’etat was accepted by the court, but there is no indictment prepared for judges and prosecutors yet. Moreover, judges and prosecutors’ detention are very different from the others. Let us also read Prosecutor Yiğit Kaçar’s sharings, who conducted important smuggling investigations during the period of the Hopa Public Prosecutor’s Office, about the prison conditions: “Six months have passed in prison. I have faced many things that have troubled me in this life. But I think this is the most difficult one. This test is really tough. I am struggling not to lose my soul and body health between the walls. Of course the prison is difficult for everyone but the conditions for us are the most severe …

WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SAID TO DIFFERENT PRACTICES ?

“We are deprived of some rights, even those that have who have been convicted of crimes such as murder, extortion, rape. While they can go to exercise, even stepping out of our cell for us is forbidden. I never saw here the sun, the earth, the green. While we hear their (our familys) voices every two weeks, they (other detainees and convicts) can talk on the phone with their loved ones every week. We can only hug [meant visiting day] our loved ones once every two months as they can be once a month.

It’s a tiny space, a toilet door torn from the cove, and a life we ​​try to maintain in front of it. It’s so stuffy that I sometimes feel like drowning at night. It is very difficult to get out of here without losing your mental health. If they will not let us go again, I have no objection, but will they tell us who will benefit from having mental health impairment if they will release us someday? I have personally observed that the prisons have absolutely no benefit for the people in this country. The prime purpose of the prisons should be directed at the correction, rehabilitation, is not it?”

The files of judges and prosecutors are circulating from city to city. It is not clear who will be tried where. Secret witnesses, what the confessions told by them, will only be learned in the indictment stage. We wish the facts to emerge as soon as possible.

Source: http://www.sozcu.com.tr/2017/yazarlar/saygi-ozturk/cezaevine-once-onlar-konulmali-diyorlardi-1719985/