Turkish parliament passes new penal reform to release thousands of prisoners over deadly coronavirus outbreak

Turkey's parliament on Tuesday passed a law that will allow the release of tens of thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding in jails and protect detainees from the coronavirus.

The ruling Justice and Development [AK] Party and nationalist MHP allies supported the bill, which was accepted with 279 votes for and 51 votes against, deputy parliament speaker Süreyya Sadi Bilgiç said.

Sex crimes that offend the public's conscience as well as drug crimes, first degree murder, crimes of violence against women and terrorist crimes were excluded from the reform.

The reform will enable home confinement for some inmates over 65, women who have children aged six and under and sick prisoners who cannot take care of themselves.

But it will toughen sentences on those who organize criminal groups for the purpose of monetary profit.

The reform will also bring measures for inmates with communicable diseases.

The measures will roughly double the number of beneficiaries of alternative penal arrangements from about 45,000 to 90,000 in home confinement due to such illnesses.

Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül on Monday confirmed 17 cases of the novel coronavirus in five open prisons, while three inmates have died from the virus.

On Monday, the death toll in the country from the coronavirus rose to 1,296. The country has 61,049 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

Since appearing in Wuhan, China last December, the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions.

Data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University shows worldwide infections have surpassed 1.9 million, with the death toll above 118,000 while more than 446,000 have recovered.