Sinn Fein promoted a Vigil in Dublin for HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven, who has reached day 67 of her hunger strike. 

The Hakkari MP has gone on hunger strike on 8 November in Amed prison where she is held a hostage to demand the end of the isolation regime imposed on Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Ocalan. 

Sinn Fein has shown since the beginning of Leyla Güven’s action extreme sensibility and support. As Martina Anderson, one of the party’s MEPs, has said, “We know all too well what hunger strike mean”, referring to the 1981 hunger strike in Long Kesh, outside Belfast, led by Bobby Sands (also an elected MP) and dozens of his IRA and INLA comrades. Bobby Sands died after 66 days of fast, on 5 May 1981, followed by nine other prisoners. 

Martina Anderson is currently in Amed with a delegation of deputies and lawyers. They had asked permission to visit Leyla Güven in prison, but their request was rejected. 

You can see the video of the Vigil promoted by Sinn Fein in Dublin here: