Ferhan Yılmaz, a 29-year-old prisoner in Silivri L Type Prison No. 5, notorious for allegations of torture, died suspiciously two days before his release.

Hikmet Yılmaz, the brother of the prisoner, reacted to the prison administration and the Directorate General of Prisons and Detention Houses, which claimed that the prisoner died of a heart attack. Yılmaz said that his brother was killed by torture.

“He was covered with blood and there were beating marks all over his body,” Yılmaz told ANF.

Yılmaz emphasized that the Forensic Medicine Institute designated the type of death as an 'infectious disease', and the cause of death was not specified on the grounds that there was not an on-call doctor available.

‘HE ASKED FOR MONEY TO COME HOME’

Yılmaz said that his brother Ferhan Yılmaz died 2 days before his release. “Ferhan had been in prison for two years. He was going to be released on Tuesday. He called us. He was cheerful. He asked for travelling money to come to Batman after his release. However, even though the money seems to have been delivered, he never received it.”

“We were called by the prison administration. They told us that Ferhan had taken a pain killer and suffered a heart attack. His heart stopped. But in the images delivered to us when he was in the intensive care unit of Silivri State Hospital, his face was purple, there was blood in his nose, and his lips were swollen. Obviously, he had been beaten,” he noted.

Yılmaz insisted that his brother was certainly tortured to death, saying that “you can’t see blood coming from the nose of a person who had a heart attack.”

'ATK ASKED FOR A BRIBE'

Yılmaz pointed out that the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK), where his brother’s body was taken, asked for a bribe from the family. “When we asked for the autopsy report, an ATK official asked for a 30 thousand TL bribe. The official told us that if we gave this money, the report would be released in 2 months, not 4 months. Of course, we did not accept this offer. We don't have that much money anyway.”

'TWO MORE BODIES BROUGHT FROM PRISON'

Yılmaz revealed that two more bodies had been brought while they were waiting in front of the ATK. “When we went in the morning, there were soldiers. Two more bodies were brought from prison. However, the families were not there. The driver of the vehicle came to us and asked if one of the bodies belonged to us. We said no. In other words, my brother's body did not come, but there were two more bodies that day.”

‘NO MORE DEATHS!’

Yılmaz pointed out that no prisoner is safe in Silivri Prison because most of them are Kurds. He said that he does not want other young people to die like his brother and called for sensitivity to stop deaths in prisons immediately.

WHAT HAPPENED

In a previous statement, the Istanbul Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and the families of prisoners reported that on April 6, Ferhan Yılmaz and another prisoner whose name could not be identified had died as a result of the pressure and torture by 60 guards in Silivri prison. There were also 4 other prisoners who were subjected to torture.

Halil Kasan, one of the prisoners who were tortured by the guards, told what happened in his last phone call with his family. “They beat and insulted us again. They are persecuting us. They are forcing us to commit suicide,” Kasan told his family.