The health of imprisoned Kurdish politician Aysel Tugluk has further deteriorated, a deputy said after her recent visit to Tugluk in a Turkish prison.
Meral Danis Bestas, the chair of the parliamentary group of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said Monday on Twitter:
“I visited dear Aysel Tugluk in Kandira prison with our Agri deputy Dilan Dirayet. We sadly observed that her health has deteriorated since our previous visit. Why is Aysel still in prison although they know about her medical condition? What’s the reason of this insistence?”
Tugluk was diagnosed with “chronic and progressive dementia” in 2021 by the Faculty of Medicine in Kocaeli University, and the report concluded that she was not fit to stay in prison. However, a more recent report issued by the Turkish Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) in February 2022 said that Tugluk has been diagnosed with “mild cognitive impairment” and has “full criminal liability.”
Tugluk was forced by a Turkish court to testify through an audio-visual system on 1 August. Although she said that she would not be able to talk, the judge continued to ask her questions.
She had to face a public act of hatred and extreme hostility in September 2017 after her mother died, when a mob protested at her burial in the capital city Ankara, yelling that an Alevi should not be buried in a Sunni cemetery. Officials gave in to the mob and the remains were exhumed to be sent to Dersim, the home town of the Tugluk family, for reburial.
Tugluk is a former deputy for the HDP, and she has been imprisoned since December 2016 over “terror” charges.
Source:gerceknews
