Sick prisoner Fatma Tokmak waiting for emergency surgery
İSTANBUL (DİHA) - Kurdish prisoner Fatma Tokmak, currently held in an Istanbul jail despite the fact that her heart valves are failing, is currently waiting for emergency heart surgery.
Fatma Tokmak was first imprisoned during a house raid on a house where she was a guest during Northern Kurdistan's violent 1990s. The main evidence against her is a statement in Turkish that she signed after torture and was unable to read, as she only speaks Kurdish. Tokmak developed severe heart problems in prison, likely related to the stress of being tortured along with her son, who was a small child at the time. Doctors repeatedly issued reports saying that continued imprisonment and lack of treatment for her deteriorating health problems was a death sentence for Tokmak, but the Turkish prison system has continued to deny her permission for medical treatment.
Fatma Tokmak, whose condition has sharply deteriorated in recent weeks, is now scheduled for emergency heart surgery on Thursday. Doctors at the Mehmet Akif Ersoy hospital, where Tokmak has been treated whenever the prison has given permission, say that Tokmak is facing a 90% risk of death.
Tokmak's son Azad Tokmak received the news yesterday evening. Early this morning, he went to the courthouse to request permission to see his mother, but the prosecutor was out of the office and Azad Tokmak has so far been denied permission to see her. He and his lawyers will be waiting outside the prison to see her.
(cm/nt)
