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.