Ankara - Turkish security forces seized control over one of two prisons where hundreds of left-wing inmates have been in a violent three-day standoff that has left at least 22 dead.
Meanwhile President Ahmet Necdet Sezer signed a controversial amnesty law which is expected to empty the country's prisons by half, his office said in a statement.
The interior ministry said in a statement that although security forces had gained control in large parts of Umraniye prison, on Istanbul's Asian side, they had thus far failed to end the three-day standoff there. The ministry said the prisoners had shut themselves up in a conference hall and were continuing to resist.