KCK suspect kills himself in Ankara prison cell

ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency

An inmate named Harun Toygar committed suicide in his prison cell in Ankara, a day after attending a hearing for allegedly joining the youth branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its alleged urban wing Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).

Authorities in the Ankara Sincan F-Type Prison announced that the prison officers found the convict hanged in his ward. The inmate who had been staying in the same ward as Toygar was released a few days ago.

The Sincan Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident.

Some 14 students from Ankara University, including Toygar, were arrested on charges of joining the youth branch of the PKK and the KCK. Their hearings began on April 3, at the Ankara 13th Court. After deciding to release two of the 11 arrested defendants, while ordering the continued detention of the other nine, the court postponed the hearing to a later date.

In the last hearing on April 3, the defendants denied the charges of “being a member and making propaganda of a terrorist organization,” and argued that the incident broke out after one of the defendants, Servet Başak, and his girlfriend were battered on Nov. 6, 2012. Complainant Osman Akşit claimed that a group of people, including the defendants, attacked him on Nov. 6, while Harun Toygar stabbed him in the chest during the course of the incident.