Humanitarian Crisis In Turkish Prisons

On April 14, 2020, the Turkish Parliament passed a law to address the spread of COVID-19 in prisons that led to the release of 90,000 prisoners. While I welcome measures taken to alleviate overcrowding in Turkey’s prisons, this law unjustifiably excludes scores of journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, lawyers, and others that are imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of their rights and in contravention of the rule of law. Human Rights Watch, ARTICLE 19, Punto24, and twenty-one other organizations have already called on the Turkish authorities to release all those arbitrarily detained for exercising their freedom of expression and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Turkish prisons (https://tinyurl.com/HRWCallOnTurkey). Representatives Trone (MD-06), Keating (MA-09), Costa (CA-16), Omar (MN-05), Bera (CA-07), and Connolly (VA-11) have also raised this issue in their “Letter to Secretary Pompeo re Turkey COVID-19 Prison Policy” (https://tinyurl.com/RepTroneLetter). I request your support for this letter and I urge Congress to pass a resolution to pressure the Turkish Government to equitably apply the COVID-19 prevention measures and release all prisoners of conscience before it is too late.

First sent on May 21, 2020 by CovidInSilivri