Two prisoners died on May 6 and 7, bringing to 22 the number of protesters, most of them leftist militants, who have succumbed to a hunger strike launched late last year in Turkey's jails.
Doctors say dozens of fasting inmates are now close to death.
Some of them have been hospitalised but are still refusing treatment. Over 250 protesters are currently on hunger strike. Among the recent victims were also relatives of jailed militants who joined the fast in order to lend support to their comrades behind bars and ensure that their protest gets maximum publicity. Three of seven hunger strikers who had been fasting together in a poor neighbourhood of Istanbul have starved to death. Surrounded by well-wishers, the remaining four pursue their slow suicide under the glare of the media, prolonging their painfully slow agony by drinking salted and sugared water.