“The regulation refers to crimes committed before July 2016”.
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Turkey said on Wednesday that it would empty its prisons of tens of thousands of criminals to make room for a new wave of detainees, including journalists, teachers, lawyers and judges rounded up in connection with last month’s failed coup.
The move will free up space in crowded prisons as Turkish authorities continue a sweeping purge in the wake of the failed coup, which has resulted in the arrest or detention of more than 23,000 now.
Emrah Pasa Alissoy, 27, thanks media after he was released from a high security prison complex in Silivri, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Istanbul, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016.
Who is eligible for release from prison?
I was not expecting it. It adds: “In a televised address on local Turkish TV channel, A HABER, Bozdag shed some light on the issue, saying, ‘There are a total of 214,000 inmates in prisons right now”.
There were 188,000 prisoners in Turkey as of March, some 8,000 more than the existing capacity.
Nearly 240 people died resisting the coup from 15 and 16 July, as rebel parts of the military tried to seize control of Turkey, sending tanks into Ankara and Istanbul.
On July 15, at least 270 people were killed during a short-lived coup attempt the government claims was masterminded by US -based Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen and carried out by thousands of police officers and military personnel.
Further sackings were announced Wednesday – 2,360 police officers, 112 military personnel and 24 members of the coast guard, according to a decree in the official government gazette.
Eroglu said it had no links to any company providing finance to Gulen’s movement, according to the Hurriyet news website.
Turkey has pressed the United States to extradite Gulen to face trial back home, with prosecutors already demanding a symbolically tough punishment of two life sentences and 1,900 years in jail.
Turkish officials have also accused the U.S. government of being behind the coup.
Turkey’s jails can accommodate about 180,000 prisoners.
– President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had suggested Turkey could bring back capital punishment – abolished in 2004 as part of the country’s reforms to join the European Union – in the wake of the July 15 failed coup. More than 21,000 Kurds are believed to have been killed between 1984 and 2012, and another 2,000 between July and September a year ago.
The manhunt for all who were suspected of bringing down Turkish President Erdogan’s government also included a search of corporations some of which were involve in retail, healthcare and technology. Gulen has denied the charge and condemned the coup.
Critics accuse Erdogan of using the purge to crack down on broader dissent.
Why have they been dismissed?
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“What just happened at Ozgur Gundem, the historical Kurdish daily in Turkey, is unacceptable”. According to Turkish officials, the mastermind of the failed coup was John Campbell, a former commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan.
