Republican News · Thursday 17 January 2002

Three more deaths in Turkey

Three more political prisoners have died on hunger strike in Turkey in the yearlong protest over Turkey's new maximum security prison system.

On Tuesday, 8 January, Lale Colak (27) became the 45th person to die. About 100 inmates continue to starve themselves to death, taking vitamins and sugared water to prolong their fast.

independent human rights association said she died in a hospital in Istanbul ten days after she was discharged from prison because her health was failing.

Colak had been jailed for being a member of an outlawed left wing group.

Zeynel Karatas died on 5 January at the Tekirdag F-type prison. Born in 1977 in Dersim, Karatas was arrested in December 2000. He opted to take part in fourth team of Death Fast volunteers rather than accept early release.

Ali Camyar, 32, died in hospital in the western city of Izmir on Wednesday 2 January after fasting for about nine months, the prisoners' solidarity group Ozgur Tayad said. The Turkish Association of Human Rights said Camyar died from tuberculosis after starvation had weakened his immune system. Camyar was jailed for 18 years in 1996 for membership of an outlawed group of revolutionary communists. He had been on the Death Fast for 256 days when he died.