Makbule Ozer marks her 80th birthday on Friday between the four walls of a Turkish prison cell in Van province. She will have to spend a further 25 months in jail if her family fails to prove to a court in the province that she cannot endure the difficult prison conditions due to her age and disability. Her sons and lawyer are attempting any method they can to secure her freedom, knocking on every door to free the elderly woman who is incarcerated alongside her husband.
On July 20, 2018, Makbule was treating people for their broken, twisted bones and umbilical hernias at her home in Van’s Edremit district as usual. At around 10pm, a stranger knocked on their door and asked if she could treat her for an umbilical hernia. She welcomed her in and, minutes later, police raided the house on the grounds that the stranger was a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“All members of our family were kept outside the house while the woman [suspected PKK member] was tortured for hours. Then my parents and three of my brothers who lived in the house were detained. After four days, they were released on the condition of remaining under surveillance,” Serhat Ozer, one of Makbule’s 13 children, told Rudaw English via WhatsApp on Monday.
“The woman was carrying a fake ID card. She confessed this during her testimony [to the police] because she was hiding from her family,” the 37-year-old man explained.
Police initially accused the young woman of being a member of the PKK, but this later changed to the crime of faking an ID. However, a court in Van province sentenced Makbule and her 69-year-old second husband, Hadi, to two years and one month in 2018 for “aiding” the PKK; a decision approved by a top court in April. The couple were arrested on May 9 this year.
“We cannot inspect the ID cards of everyone who visits us. The woman was detained for holding a fake ID card, not for being a member of the organisation. Therefore, prosecuting my parents for alleged links to the organisation is illegal,” Serhat stressed.
Legal fight
When the couple’s sentence was upheld by the top court, the family took them to a hospital to undergo a disability test with the hope of changing their sentence to house arrest. Hadi’s disability was scored at 33 percent, while Makbule’s disability was assessed to be 52 percent. The court rejected the results on the grounds that “the legal conditions were not met,” the couple’s lawyer, Dilan Kunt Ayan, told Rudaw English via Whatsapp on Wednesday.
According to a medical report issued by a specialised hospital in Van on April 7 as seen by Rudaw English, Makbule’s 52 percent disability was mostly related to her mobility and urological issues.
Serhat says that the court refused point-blank to take a medical report for his father, but asked the family to provide a forensic report for Makbule. She recently underwent the test, but its conclusions are yet to be issued. If the result shows that Makbule is not able to endure prison conditions and needs the help of her family, she could be granted house arrest as requested by the family.
Her lawyer told Rudaw English that they will use all legal methods to free Makbule from jail, adding that they will appeal the sentence given to the couple and will also take the matter to the country’s Constitutional Court.
Ayan said the old woman’s disability is “strong proof” that she needs to be out of jail.
“We believe that [her release] is legally possible because Makbule is in a [health] condition that she cannot attend the trial without a wheelchair,” noted the lawyer.
Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, an outspoken lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said in a tweet on Thursday that Makbule goes through health checks twice a day, and that she has difficulty walking and uses a wheelchair.
“Due to prison conditions, her blood sugar and blood pressure also increased,” he wrote.
A large number of social media users and politicians have expressed their support for the Ozer couple, demanding their immediate release.
The US State Department's annual report in 2018 reported the "arbitrary arrest and detention of tens of thousands of persons" in Turkey.
Strongly condemning the conviction of Osman Kavala by a Turkish court late last month, the department called on Turkey to free the philanthropist and "all others arbitrarily incarcerated."
This is not the first time that Kurdish elders with disabilities and chronic diseases have been incarcerated in Turkey for alleged links to the PKK. Ali Bocnak died from an illness at the age of 76 in September 2020 after spending more than a decade in jail for alleged links to the PKK. In 2018, a court in Mus province rejected an appeal to release the 78-year-old Sise Bingol from jail despite suffering from diabetic, high blood pressure, lung and kidney problems.
Official figures obtained by the Human Rights Association (IHD), released on April 29, say that there were 314,502 inmates in Turkish prisons as of March 31.
“According to data collected by İHD’s Central Prisons Committee, there are 1,517 sick prisoners, including 651 in critical condition, in prisons in Turkey as of April 2022,” the report states, adding that at least 46 prisoners had lost their lives due to health conditions since early 2021.
