ANKARA - Vedat Bozkurt wrote in a letter to Huseyin Aykol that despite being acquitted of the disciplinary offence, his sentence was upheld on the grounds of three solitary confinement penalties.
Journalist Huseyin Aykol is still undergoing treatment at Sincan Training and Research Hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage at his home in Ankara on 14 October. Aykol has been in intensive care for two months but he continues to receive letters from the prisons he has been the voice of for years.
Vedat Bozkurt is being held at Sungurlu T-Type Prison in Çorum. He stated in a letter he sent to Aykol that he has been imprisoned since 2012 and described the injustices he has experienced in prison.
RELEASES ARE BEING PREVENTED
Bozkurt stated that although he was due to be released in March 2024, he will be held in prison for an additional four years due to three solitary confinement sentences he received during his imprisonment, one of which was issued 13 years ago.
Bozkurt stated in his letter that one of the solitary confinement sentences was imposed by the Mersin E-Type Prison administration, writing: "As a result of the administrative trial, a 12-day solitary confinement sentence was imposed. However, the prison administration did not stop there and filed a criminal complaint against us with the prosecutor's office, requesting a judicial trial. Ultimately, the Mersin 11th Criminal Court of First Instance, where we were tried for the act that was the subject of the disciplinary penalty imposed by the prison administration, ruled that we were not guilty and acquitted us."
However, disciplinary penalties imposed for the same offence are not lifted, and appeals in this regard are rejected. The Mersin Enforcement Court is making arbitrary decisions without providing any legal justification. It is resorting to all sorts of tricks to prevent the lifting of the disciplinary penalty that is preventing my release. One court says you are guilty, the other says you are innocent. Two separate courts, but courts of the same country. A contradictory situation exists."
Bozkurt stated that the Prison Administration and Observation Board revoked his conditional release dated 13 March 2024 due to the aforementioned cell punishment and set the date as 2028.