Student Council of Defense of Human Rights in Kurdistan: A number of political prisoners entered their seventh (7th) day of hunger strike in Maku Prison. This hunger strike commenced on Sunday January 4th 2009.
This hunger strike is a protest against terrible prison conditions, violation of legal rights or prisoners by prison officials, discrimination against Kurdish political prisoners as well as not being allowed to seek necessary medical treatment and not being allowed temporary leaves from prison, which is a legal right of any prisoner.
Last week two Kurdish prisoners from this prison Mr. Ramezan Ahmad and Mr. Farhad Chalesh were sentenced to death on charges of being a Mohareb (Enemy of God).
Having any kind of communication with the outside world from the prison has been made extremely difficult by the prison officials in order to prevent the news of this hunger strike from spreading.
The names of some of the prisoners currently on hunger strike are:
1. Rostam Arkiya-Son of Rahim-Sentenced to death-Charged with being a Mohareb (Enemy of God)
2. Ramezan Ahmad-Sentenced to death-Mohareb
3. Farhad Chalesh-sentenced to death-Mohareb
4. Saeed Aghvez-3 prison sentences: 15 years, 10 years and 1 year
5. Asad Ahnameh
6. Ibrahim Eghbali
7. Hossein Amigh
8. Nabi Taghlidi
9. Hamid Teymouresh
10. Khalef haji
11. Hossein Cheylan-son of Haji Ali- 3 prison sentences: 10 years, 4 years and 15 years
12. Ardeshir Delayi Miken
13. Ali Rasuli
14. Saeed Raseghi
15. Ibrahim Farmand
16. Saeed Omarpour-so on Ibrahim- four years imprisonment
17. Mohammad Omarpour-Son of Ibrahim-2 prison sentences: 15 years and 4 years
18. Abdollah Omarpour-13 years and 6 years
19. Hossein Moravi Milan
20. Adel Mohammad Nejad
21. Hassan Talei-son of Haji Ali
22. Ibrahim Dadgostar Jeni Kanlu-60 years old
It is worth mentioning that this is the second large scale hunger strike by Kurdish Prisoners this year. Earlier this year close to 80 prisoners from 8 different prisons went on a 47 day long hunger strike to protest against their conditions. Some of the prisoners currently on hunger strike also participated in the previous hunger strike.