Guards raid hunger-striking women politicians' wards

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Wards of hunger-striking women politicians in a prison in the northwestern Kocaeli province were raided yesterday (November 29), Mesopotamia Agency reported.

Imprisoned politicians from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) announced on November 27 that they started a hunger strike against rights violations in prisons and the "isolation" of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

During the raid in the Kandıra No. 1 Type-F High-Security Prison, wardens confiscated notes, writings, defense statements, pens and books belonging to the politicians, said Nurhayat Altun, the former co-mayor of the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Dersim.

HDP's former co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ, DBP's former co-chair Sebahat Tuncel, former Diyarbakır Co-Mayor Gültan Kışanak and former HDP deputy Çağlar Demirel are among the prisoners whose wards and cells were raided, said the report.

Speaking with her family, Demirel said that guards searched the wards for hours and seized personal belongings while violating measures for the pandemic, according to a report by Jinnews website.

She said that she started a five-day hunger strike against the violations.

Some prisoners reportedly applied to be transferred to the İmralı Prison, where Öcalan is held.

Hundreds of prisoners, headed by the HDP's now dismissed MP Leyla Güven, conducted a hunger strike in 2018 and 2019, demanding the "isolation" of Öcalan be lifted.

After 200 days, Güven ended her strike following a meeting of Öcalan and his lawyers last May. (RT/VK)