The Turkish government came under pressure yesterday to investigate a riot in an Ankara prison that left at least 10 prisoners dead and was followed by protests in other jails where dozens of guards were taken hostage.
Negotiations intensified to try to persuade inmates in seven Turkish prisons to release the guards that were taken hostage in an apparently concerted action following the riots on Sunday.
The fighting in the Ulucanlar prison started early on Sunday when prisoners resisted a police search amid claims that the inmates were digging a tunnel. The prisoners retaliated by firing shots, hurling petrol bombs and using gas canisters as flame throwers, according to the Justice Ministry.
The clash left 10 prisoners dead and 18 injured. Seven soldiers were also injured in the incident, the ministry said. NTV, however, put the death toll at 12 prisoners.
Several non-governmental organisations yesterday called on officials to investigate the incident. "The state is responsible for the lives of convicts and detainees in its prisons. It is not possible to accept the killing of these people for whatever reason," the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Union said in a written statement. Turkey's Human Rights Association (IHD) meanwhile alleged that security forces had attacked the prisoners in what they described as a "massacre" over their demands for extra beds in an overcrowded ward.
According to Anatolia news agency, security forces carried out a general search in the Ankara prison, seizing an automatic rifle, five pistols, two hand grenades, petrol bombs, explosives used to make bombs and plans for a prison escape.
The Justice Ministry said on Sunday evening that 93 wardens were being held in the prisons in Istanbul, Canakkale, Bartin, Bergama, Gebze in western Turkey and Cankiri in central Anatolia. The hostage-takers are demanding that officials at fault in the Ankara prison riot be dismissed from their posts at once, the injured prisoners given proper treatment and the transfer of prisoners from the Ankara prison ended.
Fighting at two Venezuelan prisons over the weekend left eight people dead and 20 injured, while in a mass breakout 26 inmates escaped from another prison. The mass breakout from the Puente Ayala a Barcelona prison was the second in four months.