Political prisoners held in same cell wing with ISIS jihadists in Adana

Political prisoners held in the high-security Adana-Kürkçüler prison are being held in the same cell wing as ISIS jihadists. Relatives are worried, especially in view of the prisoners' hunger strike against the isolation on Imrali.

In a high-security prison in the province of Adana, political prisoners are apparently housed in the same cell wing as jihadists of the terrorist group "Islamic State" (ISIS). As Mehmet Kurt, a Kurd imprisoned in the F-type prison Kürkçüler, told relatives, the political prisoners also have to go to court together with the ISIS members. In addition to the Islamists, however, criminal prisoners have also been transferred to the political prisoners' wing. 

The political prisoners in Kürkçüler Prison in Adana province have been on hunger strike since mid-July. With the temporary action, which is carried out in groups for five days at a time, they are demanding the lifting of Abdullah Öcalan's isolation on the prison island of Imrali and humane prison conditions. The prisoners complain that the isolation system designed especially for Öcalan in the Imrali island prison has meanwhile spread to all other prisons in the country, and accuse the judicial authorities of massive violations of the law and degrading practices.

In this context, in particular, it is a dangerous situation that prisoners who have been imprisoned for political reasons are housed in the direct vicinity of ISIS mercenaries and prisoners and also have to go to court with them, says the family of Mehmet Kurt. They hope for an outcry from the public and the commitment of relevant human rights organisations so that the disenfranchisement in Turkish prisons will end.