ISTANBUL - Mehmet Yurtdaş, son of ill prisoner Ali Rıza Yurtdaş, said that his father was held in a cell and "repentance" was imposed.

 

Ali Rıza Yurtdaş was sentenced to 12 years and 5 years in prison on the charge of "being a member of a terrorist organization" at the State Security Court (DGM), where he was tried after being detained in Antalya in 1995. Yurtdaş was first sentenced to Buca Prison and later to İzmir Kırıklar Type F Prison. He was sent to Closed Prison. Yurtdaş was released in 2003 within the scope of the "Rahşan Ecevit Amnesty" issued in 2000. Yurtdaş was detained again in 2010 while he was serving as the provincial chairperson of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in Tokat and was accused of 'aiding the organization'. He was arrested on the allegation.

 

Yurtdaş, who was sent to Tokat Type T Closed Prison, was released after 8 months of detention, and was sentenced to 4 years and 5 months in prison for the case he was tried for. Yurtdaş was detained again at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport in 2021 in the Tokat case, where he was tried without detention, and was arrested and sent to Maltepe Closed Prison No. 1. Yurtdaş, who is 79 years old, was supposed to be released on October 3, 2022.

 

RELEASE OF PRISONER WAS POSTPONED, A NEW SENTENCE WAS GIVEN

 

However, his release was postponed for 3 months by the Administration and Observation Board (IGK) on the grounds that "he did not take books from the library". In this process, a lawsuit was filed against Yurtdaş at the Tunceli 1st High Criminal Court in 2017, on the grounds of the press statements he attended between 2012 and 2019, his social media posts and the statements of 4 "witnesses" whose statements were taken on various dates, and the lawsuit was filed against him in 2017, while he was detained merged with the before file. Yurtdaş was sentenced to 9 years in prison at the verdict hearing held at the Tunceli 1st High Criminal Court on October 26, 2022, despite the fact that some "witnesses" retracted their statements.

 

REPENTANCE IS IMPOSED PRISONER

 

His son, Mehmet Yurtdaş, who met with Yurtdaş in prison on September 15, said: "My father, who had health problems, had been held in a solitary cell for about 5 months. My father had difficulty meeting his needs on his own. A petition was submitted to be released from solitary confinement, but the request was not met. Repentance is actually being imposed on my father. If my father accepts remorse, they will immediately place him among the neutrals or convicts. The reason they put my father in a cell is to isolate and intimidate him. They should release my father from solitary cell as soon as possible. When his friends are with him in prison, they help him."

 

SPYING WAS IMPOSED TO YURTAŞ

 

Stating that he lived in Muğla's Datça district and that when he returned home at night on April 30, three people who introduced themselves as "MİT officers" stopped him and asked questions about his father, Yurtdaş said: "These people also imposed 'spying' on me. I was threatened with the words 'You will work with us, otherwise it will not be good for you. You are constantly visiting your father in prison. Convince your father so that he can meet with us'. They insisted that I persuade my father to meet with them. I condemned them. They hit me on the head with an object that I could not see, and my head was broken."

 

Yurtdaş, who stated that he made a statement to the gendarmerie in Datça after what happened and filed a complaint, noted that a decision was made not to prosecute the criminal complaint. Yurtdaş said: "These practices are not unique to my father. This process is the product of the 'Collapse Plan'."

 

MA / Ferdi Bayram