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As hunger strikes continue in prisons of Turkey, mistreatment against prisoners also continue.
On the 4th January, Fırat Dari, a political prisoner in Tokat Çamlıbel T-Type Closed Prison, was banned from telephone calls for one month for speaking to his mother in his native language, Kurdish. Prison administrators deemed the Kurdish language as “encrypted”.
While the indefinite rotating hunger strike launched by political prisoners in Turkey continues to its 47th day, rights violations are increasing in prisons. Firat Dari’s case serves as a good example of that.
He has been imprisoned when detained with dozens of youth during the siege and destruction of the city of Nusaybin in 2016.
A disciplinary investigation was initiated because Dari asked his mother “Rewşa Amedê çawaye (how is it in Amed?)” and his mother Seniha Dari answered: “Başe, barane (Good, it’s rainy.)”
‘This statement is a coded speech’ said the prison administration and gave him a 1-month telephone ban.
Fırat Dari spoke about the penalty to his brother on the 11 of January, ‘They have not applied the penalty yet’ he said.
Dari is in the ninth group of the hunger strikers. He is one of 70 people who were in the district of Nusaybin during the curfew imposed on the region on March 14, 2016.
17 of the 70 were children, who were also arrested after being detained on May 26, 2016.
Combined, the detainees were sentenced to hundreds of years in prison.
During his statement in court in 2019, Dari said `I am accused of a crime aimed at dividing the country, but there is no evidence for this, ”
The court sentenced Dari and four other people to aggravated life imprisonment on the allegation of “violating the integrity and unity of the country”, 16 years in prison for “attempted murder intentionally” and 2 years in prison for “damaging public property”.
On the phone with his brother, political prisoner Dari said “We will never stop the struggle until our demands are met. We expect our people to give us the necessary support from outside.”
