The new plan of the AKP and MHP... Pandemic amnesty returns: Will terror and sex offenders be included?

Across Turkey, 17 thousand 492 people are in prison on the grounds of "membership in a terrorist organization." The distribution of these individuals is as follows: 10 thousand 938 FETÖ, 4 thousand 218 PKK, 946 ISIS, 281 DHKP-C, and 1,109 members of other illegal organizations.

While the total number of detainees and convicts has reached 430 thousand, the current prison capacity is limited to 150 thousand people. For this reason, potential amnesty regulations have the potential to create a serious emptying in prisons.

The pandemic amnesty, which came to the agenda with the 10th Judicial Package at the beginning of the year, had been withdrawn due to reactions within the AKP that "terrorists will be released." Now, it is planned to reconsider the regulation within the scope of the 11th Judicial Package.

In the pandemic amnesty, inmates who had served two-thirds of their sentences were transferred to open prisons and completed their remaining sentences outside. Terror, sexual assault, murder, and theft offenders had also benefited from this regulation. In total, 85 thousand inmates were released by benefiting from the pandemic amnesty.

In the new regulation, it is considered to leave these individuals outside with the phrase "excluding terror crimes." However, this distinction has also brought new inequality debates to the agenda.

The DEM Party is demanding that PKK inmates also be included in the scope within the scope of the 11th Judicial Package. As reported by journalist Nuray Babacan in her column Nefes, this demand proceeds in parallel with the party's strategy supporting the Imralı Process.

The MHP, on the other hand, supports the restructuring of the pandemic amnesty for different reasons. If terror offenders were excluded from the amnesty, some PKK members who had benefited from this advantage in the past were released, while other inmates remained inside; the new regulation could reveal similar contradictions.

PARTIAL AMNESTY DEBATE AND LEGAL STEP

Babacan stated that the regulation in question could effectively turn the "partial amnesty" debates into the first legal step of the opening process. If terror convicts are included in the scope of the regulation, a significant emptying is expected in prisons.

In the coming days, the AKP's stance and who will make the final decision will become clear. It is stated that the proposal to make a separate legal regulation for the process is also frequently brought to the agenda in the lobbies.