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Turkey rules suicide in death of Kurdish prisoner who alleged torture, rape

A female Kurdish inmate who spoke up about rape, sexual harassment and torture in prison has died in solitary confinement in what the state has ruled suicide.
ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images

Eren Keskin, vice president of Turkey’s Human Rights Association and a prominent attorney, tweeted Dec. 9, “We just received news of our client Garibe Gezer’s suicide from prison. She was a survivor of torture.” Keskin questioned how an inmate in solitary confinement could have committed suicide and lamented that the Gezer family from Dargecit, Mardin, had already suffered so much.

Keskin’s sorrow was potent on the phone when we spoke on Dec. 15. She explained that Gezer was imprisoned in 2016 on “specious charges” as a part of sweeping arrests of hundreds of Kurds involved in politics. Gezer was not involved in any sort of militant terrorist activities. She was a “strong woman who would not bow,” Keskin commented. 

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