Azad Tokmak: “I want freedom for my mother!”

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Azad Tokmak has started a new freedom campaign for his mother, Fatma Tokmak, a political prisoner who suffers from serious heart diseases.

The freedom campaign aims to get his mother released from prison so that she can undergo a proper treatment.

Azad was taken into custody in 1996 with his mother after a police raid when he was only one and a half years old. Having been detained on charges of “aiding and abetting the PKK”, Fatma Tokmak was heavily tortured and developed a heart disease during detention.

Police officers at the Anti-Terror Branch several times put out cigarettes on the body of Azad, who was only one and a half years old back then, to make his mother speak Turkish, a language she did not know. He still has scars caused by the cigarettes on his body.

You can read his story here.

“I am 18 years old. I have not seen my mother outside of prison for 16 years,” Tokmak says.

Azad Tokmak is calling for everyone to support his campaign addressing the President and Minister of Justice of Turkey:

To:

Mr. Sadullah Ergin, Ministry of Justice of Turkey

Mr. Abdullah Gül, President of Turkey

Dear Mr. President Abdullah Gül and Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin

I am Azad Tokmak. I am the son of Fatma Tokmak, who has been jailed in Bakırköy Women’s Prison. My life stopped at a torture center when I was one and a half years old because it was not only my body but also my soul that was tortured there. The torture and persecution exposed to my mother did not intimidate her but my screams shot her in the heart each time.

16 years have passed. My mother is still in prison for no reason due to a crime that she has not committed.

I am 18 years old now. I do not want to wait for the death my mother. I would like to experience new things with her every day. I want my mother alive, not dead. Is that too much to ask? I am waiting for your support. Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,

Azad Tokmak

You can sign the new petition here.