Political prisoner Irfan Kilic lost his life under suspicious circumstances in the Kandira Type F Prison No.2 on July 3. Kilic was said to have ended his own life to protest the isolation, but his family thinks Kilic was the victim of a violent execution.

Sebahattin Kilic, Irfan Kilic’s brother who lives in Belgium, said the family wasn’t given the body, there was no autopsy and the family was in fact notified of the death two days later, which all increase suspicions.

EVIDENCE DESTROYED

Sebahattin Kilic spoke to the ANF and said, “They destroyed all evidence and didn’t give us any information.”

Kilic said, “It was suspicious when they first notified our family two days after the death. They first didn’t let us see the body, and then they showed only from the chin up just for identification purposes. They didn’t give an autopsy report, we were only presented with a burial report.”

Kilic continued: Our family was sensitive and as my father was washing the body, he called others and told them it looked like an execution. My brother had serious fractures and signs of battery. The underside of his chin had a puncture. It clearly was an execution. There were burns on his feet up his legs, and there is another burn on his torso. This was made to look like a self immolation.”

Sebahattin Kilic said he suspects his brother was tortured by burning with electricity: “The soles of his feet were busted, he had signs of battery. His hands were full of signs of a conflict, maybe due to struggling. When we saw these signs, we started the legal process.”

Kilic said his brother was apparently taken out of his ward and taken elsewhere to be executed. The family met with the prisoner a week before his death, and his lawyer saw him a day before.

According to the brother, there was no reason to suspect anything during these visits.
Sebahattin Kilic said, “Irfan wasn’t a man to take rash decisions on his own.”

“WE MUST PROTECT POLITICAL PRISONERS”

Kilic said the family won’t let the matter go: “We as a family, as a people, won’t let this go. We can’t be unaware. Our efforts now are to ensure no other Irfan will suffer the same. If we don’t take action, if we turn a blind eye, worse will happen.

Now Irfan is dead, we can’t bring him back, but we can protect other prisoners. This is an attack against all of us. We will not let this go. Taking a life so ruthlessly can’t be allowed to pass or there will be more Irfans tomorrow.”