Mazlum Dağ and Abdurrahman Er are again on hunger strike. The Kurds sentenced to death in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have already resisted their prison conditions in Hewlêr (Erbil) Prison several times through hunger strikes and have been refusing to eat since May 18 in protest at the imposition of uniform clothes.

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.