In a letter to DIHA (Dicle News Agency), political prisoner Sabih Özcan in Midyat Prison said that he and three others,Turgut Yaman, Ahmet Uzun and Kamuran Kılınç, started a hunger strike on 14 June to protest against the violation of inmates' rights by the prison administration.

According to the letter by Özcan, the inmates were subjected to physical and psychological torture after voicing their demand to be transferred to another jail hosting political prisoners, refusing to stay with ordinary prisoners.

Özcan wrote the followings as to the attitude the administrators of the prison displayed towards their demand to be sent to another prison to stay together with PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) detainees; "They don't want to send us to another prison because of the fact that they aim to break our will and determination about our cause. When we talked to administrators about our demand, they told us that we would not feel comfortable while we are with PKK detainees who -they said- were all the time being made to work like slaves and spending their time in prison as if in a 24-hour training camp, reading their organization's books and being under a strict and continuous discipline. They said us that we will also fail to perform religious ceremonies when staying with PKK detainees, accusing them of being communists, insulting Islam and having no concern with the religion. They said PKK detainees were poor people working under the control of foreign powers, and having nothing to do with the Kurdish cause".

Özcan said the administration has also seized their radio on the grounds that they received action instructions from the radio and threatened the internal and external security of the prison by informing the organization (referring to PKK) about their location by using the radio. Özcan remarked that the administration had sent them to the worst room in the prison on the grounds that they disturbed other prisoners by chanting slogans.

“We are on hunger strike but we are being provided with none of the things we need. Each four of us is being held in single cells since the day we went on hunger strike. We have salt and sugar for ourselves but the prison staff doesn't even give us hot water and tea, nor lemon. All the chief administrators are subjecting us to repression to break our will and to make us desist from our protest. On the other hand, we have learned that the administration has not put our letters of application into process. All we want is to be transferred to the jails where our comrades are being held”, said Özcan and called for sensitivity from all democrat and patriotic circles.

Özcan's mother Melahat Özcan also expressed concerns over the situation of his son and three other his comrades on hunger strike and demanded the ending of violation of prisoners' rights.

Mother Özcan pointed out that more and more people are being sent to prison in the currently ongoing so-called peace process and demanded the release of political prisoners as a contribution to true peace.

DIHA said that the prison administrators they talked to denied the reports, claiming that no inmate in the prison is currently on hunger strike.