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

The Kurdistan Democratic Societies Congress in Europe (KCDK-E), the largest Kurdish umbrella organisation abroad, issued an urgent appeal to the public and called for action for Mazlum Dağ and Abdurrahman Er, whose health conditions are deteriorating rapidly on the 56th day of the hunger strike to protest inhumane and unlawful prison conditions in Hewlêr prison in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

"As their demands have remained unfulfilled to this day, it is likely that Mazlum Dağ and Abdurrahman Er have been left to certain death," KCDK-E said and further stated the following: "Mazlum Dağ and Abdurrahman Er are two Kurdish prisoners who are deprived of their universal basic and human rights. They are fighting for their lives under difficult conditions. In prison, they lack any humanitarian conditions. They are subjected to constant abuse, harassment and pressure. With their hunger strike, they are protesting not only against the inhumane conditions on death row, but against their illegal detention. They are calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi Parliament to end this situation and drop the unjustified charges against them."

"In order to protect their lives, improve their conditions of detention, ensure contact with their lawyers and family members, we demand the immediate release of Mazlum Dağ and Abdurrahman Er," stated the KCDK-E and appealed to human rights organisations and in particular to the United Nations (UN) to intervene on behalf of the two prisoners.

The KCDK-E also announced protests in various countries in Europe, Canada and Australia on 14 July. The actions, which will include the laying of black wreaths, will take place in front of the diplomatic missions of the KRI, Iraq and the UN.