A 20-year-old man who was sentenced to over 75 years in prison for stabbing five people in a livestreamed attack in Turkey’s central Eskişehir province in 2024 has died by suicide in prison, the DHA news agency reported.
Arda Küçükyetim took his own life on Monday evening after spending almost two years in prison, according to DHA. His body was taken to the Eskişehir City Hospital morgue for an autopsy.
An investigation has been launched into his death.
Küçükyetim was arrested after the August 12, 2024, attack in Eskişehir’s Tepebaşı district, where he stabbed five people at a tea garden.
He was wearing a helmet, face mask, protective goggles and an assault vest and had an axe at his waist during the attack, which he livestreamed on social media using a mobile phone attached to his vest.
A court in Eskişehir later sentenced Küçükyetim on charges of attempted premeditated murder and threatening the public in order to create fear and panic.
Turkish media at the time described the incident as Turkey’s first neo-Nazi-inspired attack.
The case drew renewed attention after a US terrorism indictment linked the Eskişehir attack to the Terrorgram Collective, a white supremacist extremist network that US authorities say used online channels to encourage violent attacks in several countries.
The US Department of Justice said Küçükyetim had shared or referred to Terrorgram publications before the attack, including material that praised previous attackers and encouraged others to imitate them.
Turkish authorities reached a different conclusion. A report by the counterterrorism department of Turkey’s Security Directorate General found no evidence linking Küçükyetim to a terrorist organization, and prosecutors handled the case as attempted murder rather than terrorism.
The US State Department in January 2025 designated the Terrorgram Collective and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, describing the group as a transnational extremist network that promotes white supremacist violence and encourages attacks on perceived enemies, government officials and critical infrastructure.