40 prisoners in Hyvali go on hunger strike after being denied release requests

Jail strikes were reported at Pristina's Pre- Jailing Centre, which is located in Heival and prisoners in Dubrava Prison.

Kosovo Corresponding Service Director Nehat Thaci told Kosovo that the strike in the Dubrava prison today has been interrupted.

“Greva in Dubrava Prison has been suspended. In Pristina at the Pre-prison Centre, some prisoners have turned down breakfast. The evening is expected to clear up, because we're still not aware of the demands of prisoners”.

The Council for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms has reacted to the strike in Hyvali.

In the KMDLNJ communiqué, prisoners reportedly made the move as a sign of riots against the president and government that have ignored the requirements for their immediate or temporary release.

Full communication:

According to KMDLNI information , convicted and detained, respectively, 40 convicts and dozens detained (in solidified with convicts) -- by April 20, 2020 -- have gone on hunger strike, refusing to take food as revolt and expressions of discontent that have been refused their release, be it immediate or even temporary. The revolution is expressed against the Government of Kosovo and the president of Kosovo, who have not taken any action for their demands or the demands of the NGO monitoring and which have made such a request.

Prisoners at the Hyvali Pediment Center, through a letter sent KMDLNY has claimed they're afraid of their health and families so long ago they don't have visits and communication with families and they only do it over phone and skyp. They claim that, in time of pandemic, they are violating the human rights they are entitled to as persons deprived of freedom by taking the example of neighbouring and European states that have offered many options for prisoners, while Kosovo has done nothing in this direction.

The convicts have declared it KMDLNY also, because Kosovo's (the Kosovo politicians) have a priority on their interest in differing from the choice of other countries that have shown greater sensitivity to this category that only temporarily are deprived of freedom.

Freely deprived they have no remarks against the correct staff at the Hyvali detention centre, nor to the director of this centre for which they are positively expressed, but that their main and sole requirement for which they have entered a hunger strike is the immediate or temporary pardon of punishment, as well as the adoption of the Law for Amnis.

KMDLNj has contacted the Hyvali Para-burging Centre, which has claimed that part of the prisoners are on strike and that authorities at the Hyvali Centre are dealing with those deprived of freedom in accordance with the rules of the hunger strike and that has been the request of KMDLNj.

KMDLNj hopes and wants to find a solution for those deprived of freedom to meet conditions to be released immediately and for others who have long-term sentences to have partial forgiveness.

Those convicted who regularly exploit the undi in their homes must be released home as long as the pandemic lasts and then return to the suffering of the remaining punishment.

The elderly, the terminally ill sick, the minors and the convicted women must have absolute priority.

KMDLNj requires that the detention measure apply only as a marginal measure and be replaced by alternative measures, as well as some sentences, should also be replaced by alternative measures of punishment.