Turkey: Death in police custody under suspicious circumstances

Turkey: Death in police custody under suspicious circumstances
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The police in a Kurdish-majority city of Turkey has said that a detainee committed suicide by strangling himself in his cell with his cardigan.

A man died under suspicious circumstances in police custody in Turkey's Kurdish-majority city of Dogubeyazit, Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.

State officials claimed that the 37-year-old man named Ahmet Bugrur, father of three, committed suicide by strangling himself with his own cardigan in the detention cell.

Bugrur was taken to a police station on Thursday after he had a quarrel with an imam (person who leads Muslim worshippers in prayer), MA said, adding that there were also rumors that he was taken into custody after he slapped the imam during interrogation in the station.

Ahmet Bugrur's brother Resul told MA that they wanted to speak with police officers who were on watch duty at the time of the incident but were told that there were none around the cell at the time. The family was neither able to have access to video footage from security cameras.

Bugrur's reason of death could not be determined according to the preliminary autopsy report, MA said.

The remains of Bugrur was buried late Thursday at a cemetery in the city.

The family filed a negligence complaint against the city's police department.