Turkey’s political prisoners at grave risk from COVID-19

Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill that releases certain categories of prisoners in an effort to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19. Now thieves and traffickers are out in society, but thousands of journalists, government critics, and prisoners of conscience still suffer in prison with a deadly virus spreading.

The Turkish government’s prisoner release is the right thing in principle, but the actual bill is a human rights travesty. It is a good thing to release part of the prison population to decrease the overcrowded facilities where inmates have to survive inhumane conditions even without an outbreak. But the groups they are leaving in prison are the ones who should be let out.