Suspicious death of Garibe Gezer in prison: Confidentiality order on both files

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The investigation launched into the suspicion death of Garibe Gezer, who had been subjected to maltreatment, sexual assault and systematic torture in prison, is ongoing. The Kandıra Prosecutor's Office has imposed a confidentiality order on the investigation file.

The administration of the Kandıra Prison in Turkey's western Kocaeli province has announced that Garibe Gezer took her own life. However, her death is found suspicious as several people ask how a prisoner staying in a cell in solitary confinement could commit suicide. That her lawyers were not let in the autopsy has caused more suspicions among the public. 

Before she lost her life, Gezer announced that she had been maltreated, sexually assaulted and systematically tortured in prison. The Kandıra Prosecutor's Office has also imposed a confidentiality order on the file of this investigation into "maltreatment" and "torture".

Speaking to bianet about the issue, lawyer Jiyan Tosun from the Legal Assistance Bureau Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention has noted that "no confidentiality order was imposed on the investigation launched upon their complaint before Garibe Gezer's death."

Lawyer Tosun has said, "But, today, we learned that this order was imposed. It is also indicated that in the ongoing investigation into Garibe's death, the prison footage has not yet been added to the file."

"In the investigation into maltreatment, there is information that the footage has been sent to the prosecutor's office to be examined. In neither of the files has anyone been indicated as suspects. We have been informed that an administrative investigation has been launched; however, the prosecutor has not talked to us, we don't know what it is about," Tosun has added.

'We want the prosecutor to be dismissed'

Expressing "serious concerns" about the possibility of an effective investigation, lawyer Jiyan Tosun has said: 

"We will appeal against the confidentiality orders. Because the prosecutor to whom Garibe talked about sexual assault in August is in this file; so, we do not know what kind of action this prosecutor, who ignored Garibe's statement about sexual assault, will take in the file on her death.

"The prosecutor is a prosecutor who does not take action. The prosecutor who took no action that day now handles the file on her death. We will take initiatives for the dismissal of the prosecutor from the file."

What happened?

Systematically tortured and sexually assaulted in the Kandıra No. 1 Type F High Security Prison in western Turkey, prisoner Garibe Gezer suspiciously lost her life. Informing her family about her death, the prison administration alleged that Gezer had taken her own life.

Gezer's lawyer and Human Rights Association (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin announced Gezer's passing on her Twitter account:

"We have just been informed that our client Garibe Gezer committed suicide in Kandıra prison. She was a victim of torture.

"She was given a penalty of solitary confinement. The prison director called her elder sister and we have unfortunately lost our Garibe. Lawyer Jiyan Tosun and lawyer Jiyan Kara are now going to her."

Further in her message, lawyer Eren Keskin noted that Garibe Gezer was in solitary confinement as a disciplinary punishment and asked, "How could a person in a cell hang herself? Shame on you!"

Eren Keskin later wrote that the lawyers went to Kandıra Prison to take the camera footage showing Garibe Gezer's moment of death and to meet the prison administration. However, Gezer's deceased body had been taken to the Kocaeli Forensic Medicine Institution in the meantime and an autopsy was carried out without waiting for the lawyers to arrive. The cause of death had not been indicated in the preliminary autopsy report.

Gezer was laid to rest in Mardin's Dargeçit in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast on December 10, 2021. (EMK/SD)