İZMİR - The hunger strike launched against violations of rights in Şakran Women's Prison is on its 14th day. Lawyer Serhat Arlı said that the conditions in prisons deteriorated because the democratic public and human rights defenders turned a blind eye on prisons.

 

In Şakran Women's Closed Prison, the 10-day rotating hunger strike started by the detainees on January 2 continues against violations of rights. The imprisoned writer Leyla Saraç started the hunger strike, which was carried out as a warning. After Saraç, Hediye Öztürk took over the hunger strike on January 12.

 

MOST BASIC RIGHTS ARE BEING VIOLATED

 

Lawyer Serhat Arlı, a member of the İzmir Branch of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), who visited the prison on January 13 and met with the detainees, stated that there is an intense isolation policy in the prison and that even the most basic rights of the detainees are being violated. Arlı said, “The prison administration and judicial authorities are deaf to the demands of the prisoners. All kinds of legal and administrative remedies that prisoners may resort to against violations of rights and pressures are closed or left unanswered and rendered dysfunctional. At the end of this whole process, the prisoners we interviewed emphasized that they had to resort to hunger strikes as the only method they can use. We saw the last example of this in the rotating indefinite hunger strike, which started in Şakran Women's Closed Prison on January 2 and is still ongoing. The prisoners are on hunger strike just to have access to their basic rights and to end the unlawfulness.”

 

CALL FOR AWARENESS

 

Referring to the unlawfulness in the prison, Arlı said: “These unlawful practices must end. The democratic public and human rights defenders need to stand up against what is happening. Since these are not done, the prisoners are forced to go on hunger strike. The already harsh prison conditions are getting worse.”