Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . A tenth prisoner has died during a hunger strike in a Turkish prison, human rights officials said. Turkish prisoner Erol Evcil died on Friday in protest at jail reforms, while doctors have resuscitated another hunger-striking inmate. A second prisoner named Mehmet Sahin was first reported dead to us. But we later learned he returned to life after doctors gave him a heart massage.
Prisoners consume vitamins and sugared water to extend the period of their protest.
Prisoners and rights activists oppose the new jails saying they increase the risk of official brutality in jails. Transfer of those prisoners to hospitals on the order of the government is not a solution. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's spokesman said no concessions would be made unless prisoners abandon the hunger strikes. It is the president's wish to see an end to the hunger strikes. More than 30 prisoners and two soldiers died in December when security forces raided prisons to halt the hunger strike and to transfer inmates to the new prisons.