The death by suicide of a 17-year-old boy Feb. 19 in a juvenile prison in Istanbul has reignited allegations of ill treatment of minors under police detention and government pressure on the judiciary, even as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed this week that there is “zero tolerance” for torture in Turkey.

Turkish authorities say Kadir Aktar used a bedsheet and blankets to hang himself in his cell a day after he was arrested in connection with an attack on an individual in July 2020. The boy’s family is demanding an immediate investigation, saying his death is “suspicious.” Aktar’s lawyer, Ahmet Atalay, who was present at the boy’s autopsy, said its findings indicated that internal bleeding had occurred in his arms and legs. This in turn pointed to the possibility that he had been beaten. Aktar was being held in solitary confinement in keeping with COVID-19 protocols, and there was no surveillance camera in his cell, Atalay said.

Allegations of torture are not new in Aktar’s case. His case was publicized by Human Rights Watch last year following his arrest along with two other minors on July 18 for their alleged role in the shooting death of a police officer. Aktar told Atalay that he was taken to a room in Istanbul’s Bagcilar police station where the police “kicked and punched him in the face several times and bounced his head against the walls like a ball.” Photos showing Aktar with caked blood were posted on Twitter by anonymous accounts. They were allegedly taken by policemen boasting of their exploits.

Police formally claimed that Aktar’s blows were self-inflicted as he resisted arrest and hit his head and body against the walls. Lawyers who saw Aktar undressed said he “had a split eyebrow, bruises on his head and long red stripes on his back, consistent with beating with a cable,” Human Rights Watch reported.