Mazlum Dağ and Abdurrahman Er are accused of shooting dead the Turkish vice-consul and intelligence officer Osman Köse and two other people in a luxury restaurant in Hewlêr, the capital of the South Kurdistan autonomous region, on 17 July 2019. In February 2020, Dağ and Er were sentenced to death by the 2nd Criminal Court in Hewlêr in a show trial under pressure from Turkey. Immediately following the trial, the two activists were placed in a prison cell next to ISIS jihadists. On 22 September 2020, the death sentences were confirmed by the Court of Cassation.

The two Kurdish prisoners have been constantly subjected to serious rights violations since the day they were imprisoned. The prisoners, who have repeatedly gone on hunger strikes so far in response to oppression and violations, started a new hunger strike on 18 May to protest the ongoing violations, specifically the imposition of uniform dress.

While the hunger strike of the prisoners has been going on for 40 days, their families condemn the increasing crackdown in the prison and call for sensitivity from South Kurdistan intellectuals and human rights associations.

In a phone call with his family on June 23, Mazlum Dağ revealed that their condition was getting worse. Dağ told his family that there were no doctors or medicine in the prison hospital, and no one had visited them for 10 days. Dağ added that he lost 10 kilos and Er lost 20 kilos.

Dağ and Er launched a hunger strike on September 28, 2022 to protest torture and ill-treatment in the prison, and ended the strike on its 14th day after their demands were met.

Both prisoners began a death fast on February 13, 2022 against rights violations. The death fast ended on its 9th day after the prison administration promised to end the violations.