Turkish prisons struggle to cope with demand
At least 50,000 people have been jailed in Turkey since the 2016 coup attempt and there are plans to build 228 new prisons over the next five years to make room for more.
International Human Rights Day is getting grimmer by the year in Turkey. At least 50,000 people have been jailed since last year’s attempted coup on July 15. Well over 150,000 have spent time in police custody since a continuing state of emergency was declared in its wake.
The number of detainees is swelling at such a dizzying rate that authorities will have to build 228 new prisons over the next five years to make room for them.
More often than not, the cases are politically motivated.
Take that of prominent philanthropist Osman Kavala, who is an ardent champion of human rights and peace with Kurds and Armenians as well as a big-hearted patron of refugees and the arts. The European Parliament called him a “bridge-builder, a man of dialogue and reconciliation.” Kavala has been sitting in a Turkish jail for the past 42 days in pre-trial detention for supposedly helping to orchestrate the coup together with respected US academic Henri Barkey and long-retired CIA operative Graham Fuller. Turkey has issued arrest warrants for both based on fabricated evidence.
