A 59-year-old man has died after reportedly falling down down a flight of stairs on his 13th day in police custody in the southern province of Antalya.
According to a Twitter account named Antalya Mağdurları, Davut Türkel was detained on July 13 on charges of alleged links to the Gülen movement, accused by the Turkish government of mounting a botched coup attempt last summer.
After remaining in police custody for 12 days, Türkel was taken to an Antalya courthouse on July 25, where he fell down the stairs even though he was being escorted by two officers. He suffered serious head injuries and was taken to Antalya State Hospital where he died on Aug. 3
A military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement and initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Hundreds of human tragedies in Turkey have been reported since the coup attempt. At least 29 people, including police officers, prosecutors and teachers, died either in police custody or in pre-trial detention. (Turkey Purge)