Mehmet Sevinç (63), who was jailed in Manisa Akhisar T Type Closed Prison, died under suspicious circumstances on April 3. Sevinç's body was delivered to his family yesterday (April 7) after an autopsy at the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK). His body was brought from Adnan Menderes Airport to Sabiha Gökçen Airport in a cargo plane yesterday.

After a funeral vehicle was denied, the family brought the body to the morgue of the mosque in Piri Reis neighborhood of Kocaeli's Darıca district last night by their personal car. The prisoner’s body was later taken to Darıca Nene Hatun Cemetery for a funeral ceremony after the noon prayer.

Policemen stopped the funeral convoy at the entrance of Darica district and threatened the family not to shout slogans during the ceremony.

The body of Sevinç was not washed by any imam in the Piri Reis Mosque on the grounds that it was "forbidden". Moreover, a religious ceremony was not permitted. An imam hired by the family washed Sevinç's body and performed a religious ceremony.

Local people who came by private car to attend the funeral were fined for parking their cars around the mosque garden.

 ATTACK ON JOURNALISTS

MA and JINNEWS reporters who went to the mosque to follow the funeral were also intervened by the police. The reporters were subjected to verbal and physical violence during identity checks and body searches. Policemen kept the reporters away from the area.

After the noon prayer, Sevinç's body was taken to the Darıca Nene Hatun Cemetery for a funeral ceremony. Members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Darıca, Gebze, Tuzla, Çayırova, Kartal and Pendik district organizations, the Marmara Association for Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners and Convicts (MA TUHAY-DER), the Med Association of Legal Support and Solidarity with Families of Detainees and Convict (MED TUHAD) -FED) and numerous people were present to bid farewell to the late prisoner.

Police intervened in the funeral in the Nene Hatun Cemetery. They said that the trees in the cemetery would be damaged due to Sevinç’s grave and told the family to bury him in the Balçık Cemetery. Despite the family's strong objections, the body was eventually taken to the Balçık Cemetery.

Police blockaded the cemetery before the funeral and did not allow the journalists to enter the graveyard.

Despite police’s repeated interventions, Sevinç's body was buried under the slogans of "Şehîd namirin" (Martyr are immortal) and "Bijî berxwedana zindana" (Long live prison resistance).

The Sevinç family will receive condolence visits in Piri Reis Neighbourhood.