Turkey’s Constitutional Court rejected today the request for the release of a Kurdish woman from the opposition who suffers from dementia, according to the decision obtained by Agence France-Presse.
The Court refused to release or postpone the execution of the sentence of Aysel Tughluq, former vice-president of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), who has been suffering from dementia since 2021.
However, the Court ordered an emergency measure for Aysel Tughluq to receive treatment and regular hospital visits to be examined by a neurologist and a psychiatrist.
“The progress of her illness must be monitored and the need for her release must be assessed at regular intervals,” the Court ruled.
Aysel Tughluq, 57, was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for “participation in a terrorist organization”.
She was convicted for her activities in the “Democratic Society Congress” (DTK), an organization considered by Turkish authorities to be linked to the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The PKK is labeled a “terrorist” movement by Ankara and its Western allies.
“I don’t know why I’m on trial, nor what happened, where and when,” he had said during a hearing in early August, Turkish media reported.
Tughluq lost her mother in 2017, and while she had been given permission to attend the funeral, the ceremony had to be canceled due to threats from nationalist groups.
According to her entourage, Tughluq’s dementia dates back to this painful incident.
“The authorities believe that Tughluq is receiving treatment because she has access to medication. However, her illness is worsening while she is in custody,” said her lawyer, Serdar Celebi.
Pro-Kurdish circles, especially the HDP, have been relentlessly suppressed for years in Turkey. Authorities accuse the party of being the PKK’s “political window”, a charge the PKK denies, saying it is being targeted because of its strong opposition to President Erdogan.
Selahattin Demirtas, the HDP’s iconic former leader, has also been held since November 2016 on “terrorism”-related charges.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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