Letter from prison: ‘Garibe Gezer was killed, they want to cover it up’

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Prisoner Deniz Tepeli has sent a letter as a witness of the suspicious death of prisoner Garibe Gezer in Kandıra Prison on December 9.

The administration of the Kandıra Prison in Turkey's western Kocaeli province has announced that Garibe Gezer took her own life. However, her death is found suspicious as several people ask how a prisoner staying in a cell in solitary confinement could commit suicide. That her lawyers were not let in the autopsy has caused more suspicions among the public.

Human Rights Association (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin has shared Deniz Tepeli's letter to lawyer Jiyan Tosun on social media.

In her letter, Tepeli recounts that she witnessed the killing of Garibe Gezer and says that there are attempts to cover up the incident.

'I filed a complaint'

Deniz Tepeli briefly writes the following:

"I am... We are sorry and enraged. Our friend Garibe has been massacred and because they try to cover it up afterwards...

"I am a witness to the killing of Garibe. I was outside to get some air at the time and I heard it. But the letter that I wanted to send to you by express mail yesterday (December 16, 2021) was returned to me; I was told that I could either send the letter in an open envelope or in a closed envelope to the lawyer whom I have given power of attorney.

"This is a crime. We all have the right to send [a letter] to all lawyers in a closed envelope but they are trying to cover up the murder.

"And my witnessing is critical. I am the only one (among us) who saw it; they are trying to hinder this. I will send the hindered letter again today (December 17, 2021), again in a closed envelope.

"I would like to inform you that I have filed a criminal complaint to the Kandıra Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and I have also submitted a petition to the prison administration, indicating that their hindrance of the letter is a crime and that it is our right to send a letter.

'They tried to distort my words'

"On the other hand, the prosecutor of Kandıra summoned Resmiye to give her statement as part of the murder file on December 14, 2021 Tuesday, but they did not include me. But, in fact, I am an eyewitness. And another prosecutor summoned [me] on December 15, 2021.

"For the rape and torture file. [The prosecutor] tried to distort and not to write down what I said. I said that I would give my statement with a lawyer or after I consulted with my lawyer. Please come and meet me. They are trying to cover it up. We will follow it up to the end."

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/SD)