A Turkish court ruled on Tuesday to release Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Çomak after he spent more than 30 years in prison on unproven charges, making him one of Turkey’s longest-serving political prisoners.
According to an announcement on Çomak’s X account, he will be released exactly 30 years, three months and six days after his arrest.
VE TAHLİYE…
İlhan Sami Çomak,
30 yıl
3 ay
6 gün
sonra
ÖZGÜR !İlhan Sami Çomak,
piştî
30 sal
3 meh
6 roj
AZADE ! pic.twitter.com/sPCZyAHxJ9— İlhan Sami Çomak (@ilhan_comak) November 26, 2024
Çomak, 51, was detained at the age of 21 while he was a university student in Istanbul in 1994. He was tried and sentenced by the now-defunct State Security Court, a military tribunal that frequently dealt with cases involving Kurds accused of threatening state security during the 1990s, often resulting in harsh sentences.
He was sentenced to life on charges of attempting to create an autonomous Kurdish state through force as well as arson, both in connection with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Çomak later said that he eventually confessed to the charges under torture. Initially, he was sentenced to capital punishment, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2000.
In 2007 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Çomak’s prosecution was unlawful.
His successive appeals have been denied, and the life sentence was upheld in both 2013 and 2016.
Despite being eligible for parole, his request was denied in August by the authorities at Marmara Prison in İstanbul, where he had been incarcerated. The denial was based on the grounds that he “has not developed an awareness of the crime he committed, and his tendency to commit crimes, along with the factors that led to his criminal behavior, still persists.”
While in prison, Çomak has published eight books of poetry. In 2019 he won the Şennur Sezer Poetry Prize for his eighth book, “Geldim Sana” (I Came to You).
He is also an honorary member of PEN.