Kurdish prisoner dies after suicide attempt, father files complaint, calls for investigation

The father of a young man who was hospitalized after an alleged suicide attempt in prison and died on Monday evening said that the prison administration informed them only two days after the incident. He added that his son was handcuffed when he visited him in the intensive care unit.

25-year-old Tamer Atmaca was arrested for a criminal offense in Turkey's Kurdish-majority city of Batman on 27 July, and was incarcerated.

The prison administration called the family on 31 July to inform that their son attempted to commit suicide, allegedly on 29 July, and that he was taken to a hospital in Batman to be treated in the intensive care unit.

Father Bedrettin Atmaca told Mezopotamya News Agency that he was able to visit his son only after he got permission from the prosecutor's office, and when he did, he saw that his son was lying handcuffed in the room.

"A soldier was keeping watch in the room. My son was handcuffed," he told. "They had handcuffed a person who was almost dead. He was being treated in handcuffs. We objected to this. The doctor and the prosecutor's office said that it was part of the legal routines (...) We filed an objection and they took him out of handcuffs only two days later."

The father said that they filed a complaint against the prison administration for informing them only two days after the alleged suicide attempt, and called for an investigation into the incident, saying:

"There is a rumor that the incident occurred after a new inmate arrived in the ward. Who is the man? Does he have anything to do with the incident? They must conduct an investigation to answer these questions."

The application by the father for being granted access to security camera footage regarding his son's alleged suicide attempt in prison was rejected.