The KDP party ruled by Barzanis is notorious as a puppet of Turkish fascism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Many Kurdish activists and media workers are in the dungeons of the KDP in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). A letter from a prisoner has reached the press, whose name we are not publishing for security reasons. The political prisoner, who has been imprisoned for around two and a half years, denounces catastrophic prison conditions and no medical care whatsoever. The prisoners are also being put under pressure by members of the Turkish Consulate. Among other things, they are threatened that they will have to serve the remainder of their sentences in Turkey.

"Dramatic conditions in Duhok"

The letter reports on the situation of ten prisoners. In particular, the situation of eight prisoners in Duhok is extremely dramatic. The letter states that even animals are not kept in such conditions.

"In a two square-meter isolation cell"

One of the prisoners was sentenced to six months after his arrest and sentenced to a further eight years after serving his sentence. Another prisoner, who has been jailed for five years, is in a two-square-meter cell without daylight. It is scorching hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. This prisoner is being denied any communication or treatment. They want him to die, the letter says. He and another of the people described are reported to be in a very poor state of health.

The letter also describes an old KDP practice; Kurdish political prisoners are transferred to blocks with ISIS jihadists. This puts the prisoners' lives in direct danger.

"Torture like in the 80s and 90s in Turkey"

The content of the letter is alarming: "The physical and psychological torture practiced in police custody and in the dungeons is an exact copy of the actions of the Turkish state in the 1980s and 1990s. It is impossible not to see that these techniques and methods are the same." In the 1980s and 1990s, countless prisoners were tortured to death in Turkish prisons; severe abuse, sexual torture, electric shocks and systematic humiliation were the order of the day.

The prisoner stated that officials from the Turkish Consulate were asked to meet with them, especially after the recent visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and that they rejected the offers during the meeting.