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Possible Amnesty For Over Half In Turkish Prisons
by Florence Biedermann
ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey struggled to limit the fall-out from a hunger strike by prisoners on Monday, but it also faced deeper unrest within its penal system stemming from a controversial amnesty.
The amnesty aims to reduce overcrowding by setting free about half of Turkey's 72,000-strong prison population.
But those prisoners who will benefit least from the amnesty - including many serving time for political offences - complain that the measure deliberately discriminates against them.
The immediate problem facing the Turkish government on Monday were 200 left-wing inmates who have been refusing to eat for more than 50 days, leaving several in critical condition.
They are protesting plans to replace their large dormitories with cells for up to three people, arguing that this will limit their right to association and allow prison warders to keep them under tighter control.
Meanwhile, the government argues it is only trying to improve squalid conditions in overcrowded dormitories, which it sees as the main source of frequent jail riots.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Monday rejected the hunger strikers' demands to scrap the planned changes and called on them to end their protest.
"Those who plotted this protest are trying to make some impositions on the state. It is not possible to accept this," he said.
But unrest among sections of the prison population goes back much further, to when the government first promised the amnesty after the general election in April 1999.
The law governing the amnesty, which was voted through parliament last Friday, reduces sentences across the board by 10 years.
Prisoners who fall under the amnesty include those convicted of murder - except Kurdish opposition members - incitement to racial or religious hatred, corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering, theft, fraud, membership of a criminal organization and white collar crimes.
The law also suspends prison sentences of up to 12 years for offences relating to statements in the media or at public meetings.
Court proceedings already underway for offences punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment are to be dropped under the law.
While halving the prison population, the legislation is at the same time politically convenient for the Ankara government.
It allows Turkey to avoid the embarrassment of jailing former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, who has been handed a one year term for comments made at a meeting, while Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan does not fall under the amnesty.
Critics of the amnesty say it is inherently unfair.
"Those who have made an attempt on other people's life will be freed, while simple prisoners of conscience will stay in prison," said law professor Ugur Alacakaptan.
The amnesty may still founder. It has to be approved by president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a former chairman of the constitutional court and a formidable lawyer.
If he doesn't like it he could impose his veto, send the law back to parliament or ask the constitutional court to rule on it.
But there is also pressure from those who are impatient to see the amnesty enacted as quickly as possible.
"We must not wait any longer, the question has been debated for too long," lawyer Sulhi Donmezer commented.
"It is a partial amnesty and there will always be a certain unhappiness among particular sections of society because not all inmates will benefit from it," he said.
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