Derya Ceylan / JINHA

ISTANBUL – As Fatma Tokmak, imprisoned in Istanbul, faces increasing health problems, it has emerged that her health report has been neglected in red tape for over a year. Those struggling for her release say the state's abandoning her to death is no accident.

The state's policy of refusing leave from prison to the over 500 sick prisoners in Turkey amounts, say advocates for sick prisoners, to intentionally torturing them. Many of the sick prisoners that Turkey refuses to release are Kurds, like Fatma Tokmak. Her lawyer, Eren Keskin, says she is being "held hostage."

Fatma had to be rushed from the Bakırköy L-Type Closed Women's Prison to the Mehmet Akif Ersoy State Hospital cardiology unit for failure of three of her cardiac valves this week, but the Turkish state is still refusing her release. Yesterday, Fatma stated that doctors had told her there was a 90% chance that she would die. The prison has refused to let her stay in the hospital for more than five days.

The fact that Fatma is facing death is not news to the Turkish state; Fatma's health report has now been held up at the state's Forensic Medical Institute for over a year. Eren says this is not the first time the state has deployed red tape against her client. The evidence against Fatma has consisted of her consent to a confession that she never read, since she was illiterate and did not speak Turkish.

"Because Fatma doesn't know Turkish, for years, she couldn't testify," said Eren. "Only years later was she given a translator to give testimony. But in this period, she developed a serious heart disease while in prison." During the Kurdish conflict in the 1990s, Fatma survived police torture along with her young child in a raid on a house where she happened to be staying. Stress is a major factor in heart disease.

Fatma was released in 2005 for treatment, but then in 2006, the state called for a life sentence despite what Eren Keskin calls "a total lack of evidence." The life sentence was confirmed in 2010. While lawyers struggled to delay her imprisonment due to her heart disease and her doctor told the state that it would be impossible for Fatma to have the necessary treatment in jail, the Forensic Medical Institute replied that this did not prevent her going to prison. She was imprisoned against in 2010.

Last year, lawyers again requested Fatma's release, as her disease had worsened further. The Forensic Medical Institute delayed a decision on her case for a year.

"I have gotten to the point of being unable to continue my life on my own and they don't see the injustice of this," Fatma said. "I'm not just saying this for myself; there are dozens more in the same situation as me who want a peaceful death."

"Many prisoners have lost their lives in prison," said Eren Keskin. "I hope that Fatma doesn't become one of them."

(fk/cm)