Tweet
Midnight Express continued: 64th person dies in Turkey's «white cells» prisons.
Turkey - Another Turkish prisoner has died on a hunger strike, raising the death toll in the protest against Turkey's maximum security prisons to 64 people, a prisoner support group said Sunday.
Ozlem Turk, 27, starved to death Saturday after fasting for 471 days, the group Ozgur Tayad said. The hunger strikers take vitamins and sugared water to prolong their fast. Human rights groups allege the protesters are also force-fed.
Turk had been imprisoned for membership in the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, a banned Marxist group, Ozgur Tayad said. Due to deteriorating health, she was transferred in August to the Ankara hospital where she died.
Leftist prisoners and their supporters began the fast in October 2000 in protest of the government's policy of moving prisoners from large wards housing up to 100 people to one- or three-inmate cells.
The government says that the large wards grew out of control and became virtual training camps for militants. But inmates say the smaller cells leave them isolated and vulnerable to abuse by guards.
Ozgur Tayad said 16 prisoners and two others are pressing forward with the protest.
The DHKP-C, which is leading the strike, has claimed responsibility for a number of assassinations and bombings since the 1970s.
Ozlem Turk, 27, starved to death Saturday after fasting for 471 days, the group Ozgur Tayad said. The hunger strikers take vitamins and sugared water to prolong their fast. Human rights groups allege the protesters are also force-fed.
Turk had been imprisoned for membership in the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, a banned Marxist group, Ozgur Tayad said. Due to deteriorating health, she was transferred in August to the Ankara hospital where she died.
Leftist prisoners and their supporters began the fast in October 2000 in protest of the government's policy of moving prisoners from large wards housing up to 100 people to one- or three-inmate cells.
The government says that the large wards grew out of control and became virtual training camps for militants. But inmates say the smaller cells leave them isolated and vulnerable to abuse by guards.
Ozgur Tayad said 16 prisoners and two others are pressing forward with the protest.
The DHKP-C, which is leading the strike, has claimed responsibility for a number of assassinations and bombings since the 1970s.
. What is Jared? If it's good food, I hope they come here fast.
.
Comment