ANKARA
Prisoners in Turkey who suffer from poor health conditions, which prevent them from being able to serve time in prison should be released, said the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc on Thursday.
“I believe that prisoners whose health conditions present a barrier for them to serve time in jail should be released,” said Arinc.
Speaking at a televised interview for private broadcaster NTV, Arinc commented on an incarcerated cancer patient, Fatih Hilmioglu, a former rector at Inonu University, Malatya.
Hilmioglu’s poor health condition has been discussed in the press, but he is only one of many prisoners in similar conditions, Arinc said.
He said that the government has introduced some regulations making it easier to release prisoners suffering from poor health, and criticized prosecutors who did not abide by this, despite forensic reports.
Prof. Fatih Hilmioglu was arrested in 2009; in August 2013 he was sentenced to 23 years in prison as part of the Ergenekon coup trial, which targeted a group accused of plotting to depose Turkey’s governing Justice and Development (AK) Party government.
Hilmioglu, who has been diagnosed with liver cancer, recently requested to be released from prison.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, at an earlier date: "If I had the authority to grant amnesty for him, I would immediately use it."
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