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Albania: prisoners in Peqin prison go on hunger strike over poor conditions
For several days, the prisoners and detainees in the detention rooms in Peqin prison have started a hunger strike, in protest against alleged violations of their human rights.
Prisoners ask state institutions to approve a general amnesty for a range of crimes, to facilitate the conditions for applying for parole, improve conditions inside the prison and better the treatment they get from security guards.
They also want to have more opportunities to communicate with family members, to be allowed to have cell phones and to allow prisoners to receive frequent packages from family members.
The protest of the prisoners comes a few days after a group of convicts in this prison refused food in protest in support of the two prisoners, Albion Aliko and Genci Ballës, who were taken to the isolation regime ’41-bis’.
In 2017, Peqin was the subject of scathing criticism by the Albanian Helsinki Committee in terms of conditions within its walls. They denounced a case of an inmate in the high security section who had been tortured and physicially abused by guards.