Seventy-three prisoners died in Türkiye's prisons in a year

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At least 73 prisoners, including three women, died in prisons across Türkiye between December 1, 2021 and December 1, 2022, according to a report prepared by a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy.

Thirty-nine of the deceased had illnesses and 34 of them killed themselves according to the authorities, in what MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu called "suspicious deaths."

"Prisoners lose their lives because there are no sufficient means of physical or psychological treatment. The situation is very bad in prisons and deaths may increase in terms of ill prisoners. I should also stress that suicides may also increase due to physical and psychological reasons," he said today (December 2) at a press conference at the parliament.

According to the Human Rights Association, there are 1,517 ill prisoners across Türkiye, with 651 of them seriously ill. (AS/VK)