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Mother of five Berivan Hassan has joined a hunger strike despite suffering from diabetes
EIGHTY political prisoners held in Iraqi Kurdistan for more than a year amid conditions of torture have started an indefinite hunger strike, demanding their immediate release.
Known as the Badinan activists, the detainees include journalists and trade unionists critical of the powerful Barzani family, which dominates the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Many have been held for between one and three years without trial and claim to have been subjected to beatings, electrocution and other forms of torture to force confessions of crimes against the state.
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports
Groups are urging the US government to secure the 16-year old’s release as his mental and physical health decline dramatically after nine months inside Ofer prison, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
JOE ATTARD explains why trade unionists are rallying in solidarity against the recent arrest of political activists in Gilgit-Baltistan, the northernmost region of Kashmir, administered by Pakistan
