Time Is Short for Zere's Release

The Cancer Advisory Board established by the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) demands to release cancer patient Güler Zere, referring to the latest hospital report.

The TTB Board released an announcement in the Istanbul Medical Chamber yesterday (26 October). According to a report from the Çukurova University Balcalı Hospital in Adana, "the disease did not show any regression, it re-occured and reached a stage of no reversion. The course of the disease shows us that the life expectancy is very short".

For this reason the Board demanded to recognize Zere's "right to a farewell and peace of mind" and suspend her sentence or respectively, President Abdullah Gül should make use of his power of pardon.

"Zere's situation is the most serious"

Zere's cancer started in the palatial region and spread all over her body. According to the board, her situation is the most serious among the convicts ill with cancer.

The board listed the other cancer patients as follows:

Erol Zavar,Taylan Çintay (bladder cancer); Avni Uçar (kidney cancer), Nizamettin Akar, Latif Badur,Naci Akyol, İsmet Demir (lung and larynx cancer); A. Samet Çelik (leukaemia), Gülezar Akın (brain cancer), Halil Güneş, Divali Kaya (bone-marrow cancer), Aynur Epli (bowel cancer).

Guideline prepared

TTB emphasized an increase of health problems in prisons and a rise of applications made to the association. They announced that they are going to finish their report within 1 month, also including a "Guideline for the Standard Approach to Convicts or Detainees Ill with Cancer".

Aim of the guideline is that treatment for convicts and detainees ill with cancer is not delayed. And in case a medical improvement of the situation is not foreseeable, a timely recognition of the patients' right within the execution law should be provided.

Zere waiting for decision for months

Political prisoner Zere is serving a 14 years prison sentence and underwent surgery for the third time on 12 October. The Forensic Medicine Institute General Board was not able to take a decision in Zere's case since the end of August.

The Elbistan Prosecutor's Office requested a report for Zere from the Çukurova Univeristy Forensic Medicine Department. In the report from 22 June the Çukurova Forensic Medicine stated, "Zere is severely handicapped, her life is under severe risk; she depends on care and supervision of others. It is not possible to carry out her intensive and demanding treatment, which includes radiotherapy, under prison conditions. It would be recommended to suspend her sentence until she has improved".

Upon this report the prosecutor asked on 25 June wheter the hospital's prisoners' ward was suitable for Zere and was told that it was not. The prosecutor did not let it go with that but took Zere on a 14-hour journey to the Forensic Medicine Institute in Istanbul. The Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) filed a criminal complaint about the prosecutor due to this approach.

However, the 3rd specialized committee in Istanbul, headed by Dr. Nur Birgen, who was handed a six-month suspension from the Turkish Medical Association for failing to report evidence of torture, ruled that Zere could be treated in the hospital's prisoners' ward.

Zere is currently kept at the Balcalı Hospital. She said that the examination in Istanbul had been carried out superficially. (TK/VK)