N17 suspects threaten strike
Complaining that the conditions of isolation in which they are detained in Korydallos Prison are intended to break them mentally and physically, a group of remanded November 17 terrorism suspects yesterday threatened to go on hunger strike next week. «We are held in subterranean white cells under conditions of full seclusion whose purpose is to physically and psychologically annihilate us,» those of the detainees held in the Athens prison’s women’s section said in a joint media statement. «We stay 21 hours a day in a prison within the prison, in damp cells with insufficient lighting, and are let out twice daily into small concrete yards surrounded by high metal walls, as if we were at the bottom of a barrel, with the sky closed off by thick netting.» The group said that, unless conditions improve, they will hold a 48-hour hunger strike as of Monday. Most of the 18 N17 suspects in Korydallos have been held since the summer. They complain that they are prevented from receiving mail – including that regarding correspondence courses – and lack satisfactory contact with their lawyers.
