Three more prisoners join indefinite hunger strike against isolation in Konya

Three more prisoners joined the indefinite and non-alternating hunger strike against the severe isolation conditions in Ereğli High Security Prison.

Dozens of political prisoners in Konya Ereğli High Security Prison started a 10-day indefinite alternating hunger strike on 4 October.

The strike has been going on indefinitely and irreversibly since 16 November.

Prisoners Ibrahim Sütcü, Mehmet İşiktaş and Dılhas Kılıçoğlu, announced that they had joined the hunger strike in a phone call with their families.

Mehmet İşiktaş told his family: “The violations of rights and the severe isolation here have become more and more severe, and our indefinite and non-alternating hunger strike is growing. Today, me and our other two friends, Dılhas Kılıçoğlu and İbrahim Sütcü, joined the hunger strike. The prison does not respond to our demands in any way. We are still all kept in solitary cells. There are ill and seriously ill patients, we have friends without arms, and they cannot even meet their basic needs in single cells. Ventilation time is too short. We can't breathe. The food is so bad that it can’t be eaten. We can't even use our own money. When we buy food from the canteen, we have a limit on what we can buy. These dishes belong to the guards; they say you can't have them."

Isiktas said the following about the oppression they were subjected to: “The guards tell us that if we starve ourselves it is our problem and they don’t care. They try to isolate us completely from life and try to break our will.”