The Supreme Court has approved the 60 year sentence ruled by the 5th Diyarbakýr High Criminal Court against 35 people who joined an hunger strike in Siirt in 2006 to protest against the isolation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The sentenced defendants include executives from the now closed Democratic Society Party (DTP, banned in 2010), human rights activists, members from the Union of Science and Education Workers (Eðitim-Sen) and Democratic Society Congress (DTK). They had been charged to a total of 60 years for making propaganda for an illegal organization.