JINHA

ADANA – Human rights defenders report that woman political prisoners in Adana, Turkey are being subjected to discriminatory use of solitary confinement and denial of medical treatment.

Mehmet Akar, Adana representative of the prisoners' families' legal association TUHAD-FED, says that prison administrators in the Karataş Closed Women's Prison have executed a regime of discriminatory punishment against political prisoners. Prisoners arrested for being members of the Rojava women's defense force the YPJ have been forced into solitary confinement and denied medical treatment.

The prison warden has frequently threatened prisoner Azize Muhammed, arrested for being a member of the Rojava women's self-defense force YPJ. The warden forced Azize, who does not speak Turkish, to sign a statement in Turkish saying she would not have contact with the other political prisoners and confined her to a solitary cell. Azize's lawyer finally learned of the situation and filed a petition asking that Azize be housed with the other political prisoners. The prison warden transferred her to another prison in Mardin province the night the petition was received.

Another YPJ member, Özgül Yaşa, was arrested and imprisoned when she crossed into Turkey for medical treatment for the wounds she sustained in the Kobanê resistance. Özgül has been wounded since she arrived in the prison, but prison officials have completely denied her medical treatment. Because both sides of Özgül's lower jaw are broken, she was not able to eat in prison at all until TUHAD-FED managed to get her sent to the hospital. Doctors have prescribed daily physical therapy sessions for Özgül; she has not been allowed to have a single session.

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