Hunger strikes against torture are spreading in prisons in Turkey and Kurdistan. Prisoners went on hunger strike against rights violations in Diyarbakır No. 1 High Security Closed Prison. It has been reported that the hunger strike will last for 3 days.

Beran Eman (23), who was arrested as a child and sentenced to 35 years and 10 months during the curfew declared on 14 March 2016 in Nusaybin, in the province of Mardin, talked about what happened in prisons in a weekly phone call with his family.

Prisoners tortured and threatened

Eman said that torture has been applied quite heavily recently, and added that when the guards searched the ward in the morning for no reason, they argued with the prisoners and threatened them by saying, ‘You will see the power of the state.’

Eman said that the guards have increased their arbitrary practices in the prison recently, and underlined that the prisoners in C Block, Ümit Özkan, Mehmet Kasım Aslan and Doğan Özbahçeci, were taken out of the ward by dozens of guards and tortured in blind spots where the cameras had no view.

Noting that the prisoners received reports of assault, Eman said that they were sent to different wards after being tortured.

Eman said that all the detainees in Prison No. 1 went on a three-day hunger strike for warning purposes after what happened in the prison this morning, and added that if torture does not end, the hunger strike will be turned into an indefinite action.

Call on legal and rights associations

Eman issued a call to Amed Bar Association, the Lawyers' Association for Freedom (ÖHD) and the Human Rights Association (IHD) and asked them to send delegations to the prison to see first hand what is happening.