Writer imprisoned in Turkey not given food or water for 2 days

Renowned writer and activist Celaletttin Can

Celalettin Can, a writer incarcerated in an İstanbul prison, was not given food or water for two days, the Evrensel newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The allegation was raised on social media by opposition MP Meral Danış Beştaş from the Green Left Party (YSP).

“He was not given water despite the fact that he had requested it for his medication,” Beştaş tweeted.

Can was sent to prison to serve a sentence upheld on appeal of 15 months he was handed down in April 2019. He was one of dozens of journalists, writers and activists convicted of disseminating terrorist propaganda for supporting the now-closed Kurdish Özgür Gündem daily in 2016 by serving as its symbolic editor-in-chief for a day.

Özgür Gündem was one of scores of Kurdish media outlets shut down by the government in the aftermath of a failed military coup in July 2016.

Turkey is often described as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, and it was ranked 165th out of 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

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