She suffers from cancer in her mouth and neck and has already had her palate removed due to her condition. Supporters of the stage-four cancer patient have in recent days increased their calls for her release so that she can spend the last days of her life with her family.It is said that Zere, currently being held at a room at the Çukurova University Medical School Hospital in a section reserved for prisoners, is approaching the end of her life, and the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) is 81 days late in issuing a medical report that could ensure her release to her family to live out her last days. Despite reports issued by the Turkish Physicians Union and the Cancer Information Council asserting that Zere requires treatment that can only be provided outside of a prison situation, there is still no word from the ATK on when it will release its own report or what the delay has been.
Speaking to the press, Zere’s uncle Yetkin Zariş said: “They’ll release her a day or two before her death so that it doesn’t affect the statistics on the number of inmates who die in prison. Then they’ll say she didn’t die in jail. She’s in horrible condition, she’s at the last stage of her illness; her body is rejecting nutrition. We want her to be released immediately.”
Zere’s attorney, Taylan Talay, criticized the ATK’s lack of action, saying that there was no rhyme nor reason to what they were doing. “What a shame that in these 81 days of waiting Güler Zere’s illness has progressed to the terminal stage,” he said.
A number of NGOs have appealed to President Abdullah Gül on the issue. Speaking this week to Turkish journalists in Slovakia, where he was traveling on an official visit, the president addressed the calls for him to issue a pardon, saying: “I could not be indifferent on this issue, but because she herself has not filed an appeal, I can’t begin that process [to pardon her].” He said that he had considered the NGOs’ requests and that if Zere submitted an appeal he would be able to begin the process for an appeal -- but he noted that it was also required that the ATK send him a medical report through the Justice Ministry in order for such a decision to be made. He also noted that in the past some pardoned members of terrorist groups had later been caught participating in attacks on Turkish security forces.
The ATK was supposed to release its decision on the Zere case on Aug. 27. If it fails to do so by the time Zere’s treatment ceases because her death is imminent, she will be sent back to prison to die. Protestors have noted that the ATK is subordinate to the Justice Ministry, asking why the justice minister has not consulted with the ATK over the delay and why the president has not inquired into the delay himself.
Over the past week, protests and sit-ins in support of Zere and against the ATK have been organized in İstanbul, Elazığ, Hatay, Adana, Malatya and Antalya, many of them in front of the provincial headquarters of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
