Killings Spark Hostage Crisis in Turkish Prisons

Left-wing prisoners held at least 60 guards hostage at seven prisons around the country Tuesday in a standoff sparked by the killing here two days earlier of 10 inmates.

The hostages will be released only if a free and fair investigation is launched into Sunday’s violence, inmates reportedly declared. Negotiations between prison officials and the prisoners continued late Tuesday without word of agreement, though the Justice Ministry and the Ankara prosecutor’s office have ordered separate investigations into the shootout between security forces and leftist inmates at Ulucanlar prison.

Turkish authorities said Sunday’s violence erupted after inmates opened fire on soldiers who raided a cell following a tip that the prisoners were planning to escape through a tunnel. The clash also left 28 prisoners and soldiers wounded.

As news of Sunday’s confrontation spread, inmates at other prisons seized scores of guards.

Accusations from rights groups and lawyers that some of the 10 slain inmates bore wounds inflicted by blunt instruments, probably rifle butts, were borne out by a forensic report released Tuesday by Turkish authorities. The lawyers said they could not confirm the reports because they had been denied permission to view their clients’ bodies.

The Ankara-based Human Rights Assn. described Sunday’s raid by the security forces as “a pre-planned massacre.”

Security at Turkish prisons is notoriously lax, and corruption among staff pervasive. Prisoners with the right connections and money can smuggle in weapons, cell phones, drugs and even women.

Turkish authorities on Monday showed weapons and explosives that they said were found in the Ulucanlar prison dormitory.

Last week, seven inmates were killed at Istanbul’s Bayrampasa prison after a gun battle between rival gangs. Guards reportedly looked on helplessly as a group of prisoners brandishing automatic rifles shot their way into a cell where their opponents were confined.

Prison authorities said they subsequently seized 20 pistols, 80 rounds of ammunition, 12 cellular phones and substantial amounts of marijuana and cocaine.

Conditions for most prisoners are extremely harsh, rights groups say. A lengthy report by a group of Turkish lawmakers last year on the state of prisons and jails revealed that torture remains widespread and health and living conditions are well below Western standards.

“We found torture instruments at nearly every prison we inspected,” said Hashim Hashimi, an Islamist lawmaker who helped draft the report.

Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, a leading proponent of improving human rights, has pledged to overhaul the country’s prison system. But Turkish opposition groups, which hold him responsible for the current violence, are calling for him to step down.