15/04/2020 (Agence Europe) – The European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor (S&D, Spain), and the chairman of the Parliament delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, Germany), denounced on Wednesday 15 April the exclusion of political prisoners from the law on the release of 90,000 prisoners due to COVID-19. “The Turkish Parliament’s amendments excluding [prisoners] imprisoned for their political activities and citizens in pre-trial detention are a great disappointment”, they stressed (see EUROPE 12458/18). According to them, such a law is “necessary, especially for those unjustly detained and imprisoned for political reasons”. “Instead, the ruling parties decided to deliberately expose the lives of journalists, human rights defenders and those they consider political opponents” to the risk of COVID-19, they criticised. (CG)