PKK militants escape prison in Turkey’s Diyarbakır using mop stick ladder

Diyar Kaydu, Ulaş Arslan, Beşir Arcagök, Osman Kılıç, Devrim Kavak and Ramazan Aslan were reportedly serving aggravated life sentences for staging armed and bomb attacks and disrupting the unity of the state.

An investigation into their jailbreak revealed that they had repeatedly broken mops used in cleaning wards and demanded new ones, without the prison management taking the broken mop sticks back. 

They then made a deck ladder from mop sticks, pieces of bed cloth and macrame ropes, passing over the censored barbed wire and a seven-meter wall using blankets.

Prison sources said the convicts particularly preferred rainy and foggy weather to stage their escape, in order to avoid being spotted by surveillance cameras. The watchtower overseeing the area was also empty during their escape, sources added.

A permanent search decision has been issued to find the inmates, while police and gendarmerie units in all of Turkey’s 81 provinces have been informed.

Senior PKK figure Murat Karayılan told the Fırat News Agency that the militants arrived safely in the Kandil Mountains, known as the PKK’s headquarters in northern Iraq, shortly after their escape.

Three prison guards were detained by police after the escape, while another three have been laid off their duties. The investigation into the jailbreak is ongoing.