A hunger strike in Turkish prisons claimed another victim on Friday, raising the death toll to 30, reported the Turkish Daily News.
Muharrem Horoz, 28, a member of the banned Turkish Workers Communist Liberation Army/Marxist-Leninist or TKP-ML TIKKO, died at Izmit Hospital in northwest Turkey, the paper said.
Ozgur Gelecek, a leftist newspaper close to the group, confirmed Horoz's death.
Some 200 prisoners from leftist groups and their relatives have been fasting since last year, taking sugared or salted water with vitamins to keep themselves alive and prolong the fast.
Horoz had been fasting for 236 days at northwest Kandira Prison.
He was taken to Izmit Hospital 10 days ago after his condition deteriorated, Anatolia and Ozgur Gelecek said.
The paper said Horoz was in prison pending the outcome of a trial in which he is accused of involvement in a 1999 bomb attack, which injured a provincial governor and killed three people, including the governor's bodyguard. Prosecutors had demanded the death sentence for Horoz and 28 other defendants.
The government has introduced laws that allow prisoners limited communal activity and opens prisons to independent inspections, moves which human rights groups have said do not go far enough, said the paper - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
