The high-security prisons known as ‘pit-type,’ established after the 15 July 2016 coup attempt and initially announced by the government as facilities exclusively for those charged in relation to the coup attempt, have over time become places where political prisoners, in particular, are punished.
It has been reported that two more political prisoners in these ‘pit-type’ prisons, where severe isolation conditions are imposed, have begun a hunger strike. Political prisoners Fergil Fırat and Celal Punar, held in the Çorlu High-Security Prison, announced that they have started an indefinite hunger strike demanding to be transferred to another prison and for the well-type prisons to be shut down.
Their lawyer, Umut Vedat Açar, called for public awareness and urged that the prisoners’ voices be heard.
Heavy isolation
Speaking to ANF about the issue, Meliha Yüksel, a Central Committee member of the Revolutionary Party, said that the two prisoners were not only held in the ‘pit-type’ section but were also placed in even smaller areas and subjected to solitary confinement penalties, calling for public sensitivity.
Meliha Yüksel said: “Pit-type prisons are places where isolation is intensely practiced. When they were being established, both we and the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) stated this. We said these prisons were being built for leftists, socialists, and revolutionaries. At that time, our warnings did not resonate much; but we were certain of one thing: they would put us, the revolutionaries, in those prisons. Today, members of bourgeois parties are also held in pit-type prisons. The isolation is extremely severe. Prisoners are banned from going to the yard together, meeting, or exchanging books. They are not allowed into common areas.
Since our comrades who are now on indefinite hunger strike were transferred to the pit-type section, neither their visitors nor their guardians have been approved. Some of their letters are not delivered. They live in an eight-square-meter space and are held under intense isolation. Even though the place they stay is already a cell, they are additionally given solitary confinement penalties.
These prisons were designed to break the will of revolutionaries and socialists. Two of our friends have entered an indefinite hunger strike; what they want is to be transferred to other prisons.
We call on the entire public and civil society organizations to be a voice for the prisoners who have begun this hunger strike.”