A human rights group and a lawyers’ association in Turkey released critical information on Tuesday collected about serious allegations in relation to the deaths of two prisoners, torture and ill treatment by prison guards plus individual and collective suicide attempts by prisoners protesting against torture in an Istanbul prison.

The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) released a statement that drew attention to the serious allegations that were personally heard and recorded by the association’s representatives in their recent visit to the Silivri Prison No. 5 on Monday.

The allegations include:

– A raid on a dormitory 7 April by a large group of prison guards and the prison administrator who threatened the prisoners, followed by the consequent isolation of six prisoners who were subjected to torture by the guards

– A suicide attempt by a prisoner who tried to hang himself using shoelaces in the prison yard after the raid

– An intervention by other prisoners to save the prisoner as neither the prison guards nor the medical personnel intervened

– A collective suicide attempt by six prisoners by taking pills on 8 April

– Hospitalisation of one of the six prisoners in intensive care after the collective suicide attempt

– A phone communications ban by the prison administration after the incidents on the 7 and 8 April

ÖHD statement also underlined that the prison administration did not respond to their questions about the alleged death of a prisoner.

The Human Rights Association (İHD) announced in a video press conference on Tuesday that a prisoner named Serhan Yılmaz and a yet unidentified prisoner died in Silivri No. 5 in conditions that involved torture by prison guards, Mezopotamya News Agency reported.

While the mothers of two other prisoners sat in silence beside the representatives of the human rights group, the IHD representatives announced the deaths, confirming that the remains of prisoner Serhan Yılmaz was handed over to the family, and called upon the Turkish ministry of justice to provide information about what occurred in Silivri No. 5 prison.