Ecevit Piroğlu has been in Serbian custody for over a year and has been on hunger strike for 127 days to protest against his threatened extradition to Turkey. A court hearing was held in Belgrade on Friday last week, and the decision on deportation is to be made at a later date in a non-public hearing. A new hearing date has not been given. This has increased the risk of extradition. In Turkey, Piroğlu faces at least thirty years in prison. His health is deteriorating.

The initiative "Freedom for Ecevit Piroğlu" is demanding attention to the case and has started solidarity hunger strikes in Geneva and Athens.

Indefinite hunger strike for Ecevit Piroğlu in front of UN headquarters in Geneva

In front of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Mehmet Yozcu, a member of the Solidarity Initiative, announced going on an indefinite hunger strike in support of Ecevit Piroğlu's demand for political asylum. A statement issued by the initiative in French and Turkish outside the UN building on Wednesday said:

"The internationalist-Kurdish revolutionary Ecevit Piroğlu has been unlawfully detained in Serbia for 15 months in violation of international human rights standards. With the extradition demanded by the Erdogan government, Serbia is violating its own laws and international conventions. Ecevit Piroğlu has been on hunger strike and is unable to care for himself in any way in his locked solitary cell. On 5 September he was admitted to hospital because he had lost consciousness. Two days later, he was returned to his cell."

Instead of granting him political asylum, Ecevit Piroğlu was held in prison in Serbia for a year and is now in a repatriation centre that is tantamount to a prison, the initiative said: "According to Serbian jurisprudence, he should have been released after a year, but this did not happen. The mistreatment he faces if extradited to Turkey will not only be the responsibility of the Turkish government, but also of the Serbian state and the international human rights institutions, which do nothing to prevent his deportation. Ecevit Piroğlu must be released immediately and his right to life must be guaranteed. We call on everyone to fight for Ecevit Piroğlu's freedom."

Ecevit Piroğlu is to be tried in Turkey for his role in the Gezi uprising of 2013, among other things. For this alone, he faces 30 years in prison. He also fought against ISIS in Rojava, for which he is being prosecuted in Turkey as a "member of an armed terrorist organisation".

A hunger strike for Ecevit Piroğlu has been taking place in front of the Serbian embassy in Athens since Tuesday.