Dear comrades around the world,
please support the political prisoner Sadi Özpolat, who is kept in the jail of Bochum in Germany for a few years, faced with inhuman measurements and violations of rights.
We included information on his case in this e-mail and ask you to phone or write to the jail, in order to ask an end to this treatment. It would be also important to publish the information on your website, newspaper or other media and to spread it around.
Thanks for your engagement and solidarity. It is very important to end his inhuman conditions…
Regards,
International Platform against Isolation
Newsflash: political prisoner from Turkey is kept naked in his German prison cell
On the current conditions of Sadi ÖZPOLAT in Bochum Prison:
Sadi Naci Özpolat was for many years politically involved in Turkey, and consequently experienced long-term prison sentences, torture and persecution at the hands of the Turkish authorities. But there is no let-up in repression in Europe either, and German courts gave him a prison sentence of six years under Paragraph 129b, following police plots and the falsification of documents by the Turkish authorities.
Only recently, Sadi Özpolat went on hunger strike in the JVA (prison) in Bochum for access to books and other rights. These rights were consequently given to him.
However, he is now confronted with another form of harassment. Since the court sentence came into force, the prison authorities want him to wear prison uniform. In Turkey itself, political prisoners went on strike against an attempt to enforce prison uniform as early as 1984, because this was an attack on human dignity. Four prisoners in Metris Prison died in a hunger strike over this issue.
As a political prisoner, Sadi Özpolat also cannot accept this humiliating measure and insists on being able to wear his own clothing. However, all clothing items were taken from him (including underwear) and that means he spends all his time in his cell naked (except for a sheet). This is TORTURE!
We want to inform you about this case and send you the translation of a letter by Sadi Özpolat.
To bring an end to these inhuman conditions for Sadi Özpolat, it would help to send messages by telephone, fax or e-mail to the JVA, calling for information about his current conditions and for his clothing to be returned to him.
JVA BOCHUM
Telephone: 0049 234 9558-200 (Administration line)
Telefax: 0049 234 503316
E-Mail: poststelle@jva-bochum.nrw.de
Justice Ministry North Rhine – Westphalia
E-Mail:poststelle@jm.nrw.de
Letter from Sadi Özpolat, October 9, 2012
„…Since my prison sentence came into force, my prison conditions have also been altered. And I think the only positive aspect is that letters are sent out and arrive more quickly than before. The negative aspects outweigh this.
Previously I had the right to wear my own clothing. But now that I have the status of a convict, all my personal clothing, including my underwear, has been taken away. They gave me ‘prison clothing’ in its place. The ‘prison clothing’ is in other words ‘criminals’ clothing’ and is an attack on the dignity of prisoners. It is a humiliation of the personality. So I have refused to wear it. So since October 4 I have been held in my cell completely without clothing. I do not know if there have been any visits, since as they have not given me my clothing, I am also denied my right to visits or to gain access to a lawyer. Previously I was able to buy from the supermarket every two weeks. But last week I was not given the shopping list. I do not know if this will be the case in coming weeks. There has been no explanation. These purchases are the only way of meeting basic needs like tea, postage stamps etc. So if they stop me from buying items like that, they also take away my right to correspondence.
All this is meant to force me to accept ‘prison clothing’. But that is simply unacceptable.
The prison sentence I was given was in any case an injustice. But to add to it solitary confinement means turning the prison sentence into a form of torture. Prison uniform means an attack on human dignity. That is not acceptable. Imperialism can talk endlessly about ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’. It simply cannot put either of them into practice.
After my hunger strike they began to give me my books. I think there won’t be a problem with this matter. …
So that is the current situation here….
I send you my warmest greetings and wish you success in your work.
Sadi Naci Özpolat“