Ankara- Turkey's justice minister on Monday said he was against moves to allow prison inmates conjugal visits, the Anadolu news agency reported.

"We treat with respect all requests but at the moment the Justice Ministry has no plans or thoughts to change the way it is at the moment," Mehmet Ali Sahin told reporters.

Sahin's statements came after the head of a parliamentary human rights commission said he had received many letters from prisoners seeking the right to have sex with their partners.

The suggested changes have received support from a number of members of parliament.

"The aim of the criminal justice is not to punish but to rehabilitate," opposition lawmaker Canan Aritman was quoted in Monday's Sabah newspaper. (dpa)