Mehmet Ali Genç and Metin Kösemen were detained 10 days ago in Urfa and are still in custody.

Their lawyer Gülhan Kaya said she met with the prosecutor yesterday, but was given no information as to when her two clients will be referred to the court.

The two youths' families and lawyers weren’t notified on the first day they had been detained, and their detention had come to light when the second police officer called the families.

The two young men had been subjected to torture for the first 4 days, and were kept blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs during the interrogation. They were furthermore subjected to beating, naked search, threats of rape and murder, and squeezing of testicles. The police made Genç drink cologne.

The two young men have started a hunger strike in protest of the torture. But they aren’t receiving the sugar they need to take in a hunger strike as the prosecutor doesn’t allow it. They have been subsisting on only water for 10 days.

Gülhan Kaya, from Ezilenlerin Hukuk Bürosu (Law Office of the Oppressed), said: “We told the prosecutor our clients’ demand for sugar needed to be met, but the only answer we received was ‘We will assess the situation’. Our two clients have taken only water for 10 days. They had trouble standing in our meeting yesterday, they looked very exhausted and their attention span was affected.”

Kaya, demanding that her clients be referred to a court immediately, also stated that their demand for sugar must be immediately met.

The law office had also launched an online petition on Change.org for Mehmet Ali Genç and Metin Kösemen to be referred to court.