Thread by @nordicmonitor

1) The alleged suicide of Zaki Y. M. Hasan, a national of the United Arab Emirates who was arrested in Turkey on charges of espionage is the latest in a series of suspicious deaths in Turkish prisons and detention centers where torture & ill-treatment has been widely reported.

2) Hasan was found hanging from a bathroom door in his solitary cell in notorious Silivri prison of Istanbul on Sunday, according to the statement by the Prosecutor's Office. Hasan and another UAE national identified with initials as S.S. were formally arrested on April 19, 2019.

3) In the same prison, İbrahim Halil Özyavuz, a brilliant medical doctor who was jailed in May 2018 as part of the Turkish gov't massive witch hunt campaign targeting members of the Gülen movement, lost his life after he has been subject to heavy torture by officers.

4) Turkish journalist Cevheri Güven exposed the murder and he said doctor Özyavus’s body showed the traces of heavy torture as witnessed by the family members who came to identifiy his body and get his funeral in İstanbul.

5) In another case, Zeki Güven, the former intelligence chief of the Ankara Police Department who was arrested by a Turkish court in May 2018 was found dead in his bed at Sincan No 1 F Type Prison on July 1, 2018.

6) Many suspected that he was killed by the Turkish intelligence agency MIT because he knew too much & could very well expose the dirty laundry of the Erdoğan government. He did not have the opportunity to appear in court to testify and provide details of clandestine operations.

7) The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) reported in one of its studies titled “Suspicious Deaths and Suicides In Turkey” that there has been an increase in the number of suspicious deaths in Turkey, most in jails and detention centers, where torture is being practiced.

8) In the majority of cases, authorities concluded they were suicides without any effective, independent investigation. SCF has compiled 126 cases of suspicious deaths and suicides in Turkey.