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Ali Osman Köse is a 65 years old socialist revolutionary with a severe case of cancer. He has been in prison for the last 38 years in Turkey and has been held in the solitary confinement conditions for the last 21 years. The cancer was diagnosed too late, as a result of the imprisonment conditions. Even if the cancerous kidney was removed, he has many other health problems. Also, it is not known if the cancer has a metastatic spread as the Forensic Medicine Institute didn’t yet give an approval for a PET filming. According to the article 16 of the Turkish Execution Law, he should be released for immediate treatment. However, authorities do not apply the rule of law, stripping away his right to live. The reason is obvious: Ali Osman Köse never bowed his head down to fascism and never renounced his political views. He is a strong representative of the tradition of the uncompromising ‘free prisoners’.
