Brussels, 22 May 2025 – The Arrested Lawyers Initiative has led and coordinated a joint statement by thirteen human rights and legal organizations calling on the Turkish government to address the country’s dire prison overcrowding crisis and to ensure that any new early release legislation does not discriminate against political prisoners.
According to official statistics released by the Turkish Ministry of Justice on 7 April 2025, the prison population has reached a staggering 403,060 – up from 273,405 in November 2023 – marking an overcapacity rate of 34.41%. The surge has raised alarm among international human rights groups, especially in light of a December 2023 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which found that the conditions in Turkish prisons amounted to inhuman treatment due to severe overcrowding.
The joint statement, endorsed by prominent organizations including MEDEL, the European Criminal Bar Association, the Geneva Bar Association, and the Italian Federation for Human Rights, draws attention to systemic deficiencies in prison health care, hygiene, and nutrition. It cites reports of inmates being forced to sleep on the floor and in shifts due to lack of space.
While Turkey’s Ministry of Justice is reportedly drafting a new temporary parole law to ease prison congestion, the signatories expressed concern that political prisoners — including lawyers, journalists, politicians, judges, and human rights defenders imprisoned under the broadly interpreted anti-terrorism law (Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code) — may once again be excluded, as was the case with similar laws passed in 2020 and 2023.
The statement calls on Turkish authorities to avoid such discriminatory practices and to prioritize the release of vulnerable inmates, including the elderly, the ill, people with disabilities, and mothers with children.
Signatories also urged the Turkish government to use the upcoming parole legislation as an opportunity to comply with international human rights rulings, including decisions by the ECtHR and the UN Human Rights Committee, which found that convictions under Article 314 often violate the principle of legality.
Categories: International Advocacy, Our Statements