A group of prisoners launched a hunger strike in Ereğli High Security Prison in Konya on October 4 to protest rights violations and severe isolation conditions and turned their action into an 'indefinite and non-alternating' hunger strike on November 16. The prisoners report that electricity, water and natural gas cuts have started in the prison lately.

İbrahim Sütcü, who is on hunger strike, said in a phone call with his family that they are kept in solitary cells without their demands being met. He noted that the prison conditions are gradually getting worse.

“Now, they have also restricted the supply of water, electricity and natural gas. We can hardly use water, they cut it off immediately. They cut off the electricity early in the evening and provide natural gas for only one hour. They keep us in new cells which are still under construction, and when they cut off the gas, we get very cold. We are isolated in one-person cells and there is no communication between us. They also prevent our complaints. Our friends who are in the first group of hunger strikers have grown very weak and they suffer from memory loss. Their condition is getting worse.”

Sütcü urged human rights and legal organizations to show solidarity with the prisoners against violations of rights in prisons.