Prosecutors dismiss investigation into 'torture' claims of prisoner who died suspiciously

Shortly after she claimed to be systematically tortured and sexually assaulted, Garibe Gezer lost her life. The cause of her death was announced as "suicide."

İstanbul

Prosecutors dismiss investigation into 'torture' claims of prisoner who died suspiciously

Photo: MA

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Prosecutors have dismissed an investigation into late prisoner Garibe Gezer's claims of systematic torture and sexual assault, Human Rights Association (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin has announced.

The Kandıra Type-F Prison informed Gezer's family that she killed herself after her death on December 9.

When Gezer first conveyed her complaints to the İHD, she was at the Kayseri Bünyan Prison, Keskin said at a press conference today (January 4). However, when İHD members visited the prison to meet her, they learned that she had been transferred to the Kandıra Prison, she added.

CLICK - Letter from prison: 'Garibe Gezer was killed, they want to cover it up'

"We learned that she was put in a padded cell on May 21, May 24 and July 6, and was subjected to extremely bad treatment and sexual assault. Then we filed a criminal complaint," said Keskin.

The prosecutor who entered a nolle prosequi regarding the allegations lacked "both legal technicalities and conscience," Keskin remarked.

"There is so much evidence in this file... Garibe's conversation with his brother in Kurdish was translated ... Garibe persistently tells about what she went through," she said. "However, these are not taken into account, ignored. It's not written that Garibe was dragged on the ground, which was shown in camera footage that was concealed from us."

They will file an appeal against the prosecutor's decision, she added.

What happened?

Systematically tortured and sexually assaulted in the Kandıra No. 1 Type F High Security Prison in western Turkey, prisoner Garibe Gezer suspiciously lost her life. Informing her family about her death, the prison administration alleged that Gezer had taken her own life.

Gezer's lawyer and Human Rights Association (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin announced Gezer's passing on her Twitter account:

"We have just been informed that our client, Garibe Gezer, committed suicide in Kandıra prison. She was a victim of torture.

"She was given a penalty of solitary confinement. The prison director called her elder sister and we have unfortunately lost our Garibe. Lawyer Jiyan Tosun and lawyer Jiyan Kara are now going to her."

Further in her message, lawyer Eren Keskin noted that Garibe Gezer was in solitary confinement as a disciplinary punishment and asked, "How could a person in a cell hang herself? Shame on you!"

Eren Keskin later wrote that the lawyers went to Kandıra Prison to take the camera footage showing Garibe Gezer's moment of death and to meet the prison administration. However, Gezer's deceased body had been taken to the Kocaeli Forensic Medicine Institution in the meantime and an autopsy was carried out without waiting for the lawyers to arrive. The cause of death had not been indicated in the preliminary autopsy report.

Gezer was laid to rest in Mardin's Dargeçit in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast on December 10, 2021.

(EMK/VK)

IHD Eren Keskin Human Rights Association Prisons prisoners vk Garibe Gezer Garîbe Gezer torture maltreatment ihd suicide ill-treatment Eren Keskîn ÎHD