The head of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party has launched a hunger strike from prison, a news report said on Friday.
“Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) chief Selahattin Demirtas began non intake of food on Friday in the maximum-security prison in western Turkey’s Edirne’’, the party said.
It added that another HDP lawmaker Abdullah Zeydan, a fellow inmate, has also joined the hunger strike.
Report says the party officials are showing solidarity with over 100 political prisoners in Turkey who are protesting the conditions for detainment during the country’s state of emergency.
Demirtas communicated through party officials that he and Zeydan have taken up the hunger strike in protest at “unlawful” and “inhumane” practices that prisoners are subjected to.
He said inhumane practices include extensive torture, solitary confinement, unannounced cell searches and the confiscation of personal property.
Demirtas is among a group of HDP members who were detained in November on terrorism-related accusations.
He and 12 others from the pro-Kurdish party are in custody awaiting trial. (dpa/NAN)