This article is also available in German
This letter was recently sent by Özgül Emre from Rohrbach Prison of Germany to her lawyer and translated from Turkish into English. Özgül is a revolutionary from Turkey who was arrested in Germany on 16th of May 2022 and is accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation. During the high point of revolutionary struggle of Turkey in 1990s, she worked as a journalist in Kurtuluş Magazine. As an exiled revolutionary in Germany, she worked in wide range of committees; from anti-drug committees to anti-racism committees. The attacks of German state didn’t stopped with this mafia like kidnapping. From the detention onward, they forced prison uniforms on Özgül Emre in Rohrbach prison. German state knows very well that Revolutionaries do NOT and NEVER wear prison uniforms. In 1984, 4 revolutionaries died as a result of hunger strike to oppose the introduction of prison uniforms in prisons of Turkey. Until this day, there is no prison uniforms thanks to 4 martyrs. Özgül Emre comes from this uncompromising tradition to keep up the identity, integrity and dignity of being a revolutionary. As the oppression to enforce prison uniforms is not enough, Rohrbach prison is tried to kill her with not supplying salt and sugar for the first 30 days of hunger strike. They only supplied one piece of sugar with tea every evening, which obviously is not enough. Without the supplements like salt and sugar in proper dose, it is very easy for a person die in hunger strike at any stage. Around the day 40, she got hospitalised and on 44th day of the hunger strike she won the struggle against the torturers and received her own clothes, luckily without any long term damage to her body. In this letter, she describes the torture methods of the prison authorities, who do not provide her with sanitary conditions and privacy.
“How are you doing? How are all our people? I am doing very well because of my determination of being righteous – despite the political and legal siege against me. The trial against me, as well as my imprisonment, are, from my point of view, unlawful and also contrary to the law. Although my place of residence is known and I had an appointment at a government office on the very day of my arrest, it was pretended that I could not be found, that I would never go to my apartment, and so I was kidnapped on the basis of lies in the street. The purpose was to make me look like the guilty. Because they could not have justified my arrest and pre-trial detention any other way. The trial against me could have taken place without pre-trial detention.
Continue reading “Letter from Özgül Emre”
