The Lifeboat News: Deaths in prison

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Investigation after prisoner found dead in cell at Belmarsh

Liridon Saliuka’s family claim he was being bullied in prison.

Wed 8 Jan 2020 -- A remand prisoner has been found dead in his cell at HMP Belmarsh after a dispute over whether he should have been classified as disabled.

Liridon Saliuka, who was born in Kosovo and held a British passport, was found reportedly unresponsive in house block 4 of the high-security prison in the early evening of 2 January.

The Prison Service confirmed he had died. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is investigating.

It is understood the authorities are treating the death as self-inflicted, but the family – who say there have been delays to the postmortem – disagree.

Saliuka, 29, from Harrow in north-west London, had been in custody since last summer when he was arrested and charged with murder in connection with a fatal shooting at a club in east London. He denied being involved.

He was the third prisoner to have died in Belmarsh within the past year. Another inmate was found dead there in November.

[...] Saliuka’s sister, Dita, told the Guardian he had been determined to clear his name. The family said the autopsy had still not been carried out and they had been told they would only be able to see his face afterwards. [...]

Guardian https://web.archive.org/web/20200108130507/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/08/investigation-prisoner-liridon-saliuka-found-dead-belmarsh