Sunday, April 15, 2012

You can take your exam -- for $ 500 and while risking your life

College students who are subjected to pre-trial detention have the right to attend their exams in their colleges -- if they pay for the gas bill of the prison transfer vehicle with which they would have to be transported to their colleges.

These vehicles are well known in Turkey as they made the news when one of them burnt down last September with five inmates, who were burnt to their deaths when the two drivers and ten soldiers could not unlock their door (for the news report in Turkish, see Radikal).

If an arrested student is held in an Istanbul prison while her college is in Ankara, the bill she would have to pay might be as high as TL 1,000 (more than $ 500), states the news report entitled the "Prison Diaries of Arrested Students," which was prepared Emiyra Yılmaz for dipnot.tv. The report (in Turkish) includes other details of the life of students in prison.

Next week, we will publish English translations of two letters we received from students.