Doctor Sadık Çayan Mulamahmutoğlu stands trial because of an alleged violation of the "Tripartite Protocol", i.e. the article that "prevents the patient and the doctor from remaining alone during examinations of detainees and convicts". Mulamahmutoğlu is a physician at the state hospital of Midyat, a city in the Kurdish-majority province of Mardin in south-eastern Turkey. The first hearing of the case was held on Wednesday (27 July). The trial was postponed to 2 November 2011.

A prisoner of the Midyat M Type Closed Prison was brought to the Midyat State Hospital on 29 December 2010 because he had fallen ill. Dr Mulamahmutoğlu was on duty at the internal policlinic. He wanted the attendant gendarmerie officers to leave the room before he was going to examine the prisoner. The gendarmerie officers refused to leave by referring to the nature of the crime committed by the inmate and in accordance with the tripartite protocol. Thereupon, Dr Mulamahmutoğlu said he was not going to examine the prisoner because of the presence of the gendarmerie officers.

"In compliance with patient privacy"

The trial is being handled by the Midyat Magistrate Criminal Court. Mulamahmutoğlu presented his defence at the Wednesday hearing. He claimed that he acted according to the patient privacy taught to be a right of the patient during the doctor's medical education.

"I wanted the gendarmerie officers to leave the room because the prisoner was bleeding from his anus. According to my medical education, I think that every patient has the right to patient privacy. For this reason I did not want to examine the patient in the presence of the gendarmerie officers. They told me that they were going to stay in accordance with the tripartite protocol and because of the nature of crime committed by the prisoner".

"I had no knowledge about such a protocol until they mentioned it to me. I think that such a protocol cannot restrict the privacy of a patient. I talked to the patient after the gendarmerie officers refused to leave the room. I agreed with the senior physician to take a record that I did not examine the patient because he was not in an emergency situation. I reject all charges".

"Our struggle against the protocol will continue"

A Press release was issued in front of the courthouse after the hearing. Banners had been posted reading "Abolish the Tripartite Protocol", "Fundamental values of human rights and professional ethic codes cannot be prosecuted" and "The right to health cannot be tried".

The statement was read out by the former President of the Turkish Medical Chamber (TTB), Gençay Gürsoy. He said that his colleague was being tried for applying medical ethics thousands of years old.

"The protocol does not care about the individual in international standards and it is not clear on the three executive parties that signed the protocol with the government. We will continue our struggle against the protocol to prove a violation of human rights".

"People in prisons have rights"

Öztürk Türkdoğan, defence lawyer and President of the Human Rights Association (İHD), said that more sensitivity was needed to attain the right to health of prisoners.

"Considering human dignity, our colleague acted according to professional ethics. Now he is being tried for misconduct of office. We are facing a tragicomic situation. People in prisons have rights and dignity. More sensitivity is required to attain the right to health of a prisoner".

The hearing was followed by about 150 people, among them representatives of the TTB, the Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES), the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees (KESK) and observers from the provinces of Adana, İstanbul, Denizli,  Muğla, Kocaeli, Şanlıurfa, Batman, Siirt, Diyarbakır, Şırnak and Ağrı. (MHİ/NV/ŞA/VK)