Political prisoner Patxi Ruiz began a hunger strike against the lack of doctors in Iruñea prison

Basque political prisoner Patxi Ruiz continues his fight to denounce the disastrous health care in the prison of Iruñea (Nafarroa). In view of the latest terrible events, in which a woman prisoner has lost her life due to an ailment, Ruiz has undertaken a new battle: he has started yesterday, December 9, a hunger strike to denounce the lack of doctors in the Navarrese prison.

According to a news article by Diario Socialista, Salhaketa Nafarroa reported last Friday that on November 30 a person who was imprisoned in Iruñea had died. The group explained that no official information has yet come to light, but that they have implied that an elderly person lost his life affected by a lung ailment, in a context of lack of doctors suffered by prisoners in prison. On weekends, for example, no doctor is usually in prison and “it is the officials without specific training who assess the referral to the nursing module or the requirement for the doctor to go to prison,” says Salhaketa.

Ruiz remembered precisely the recently deceased person in a related message: “I announce that tomorrow, December 9, I face a hunger strike as a sign of protest and denunciation of the lack of medical attention that we suffer in this prison and that, on this occasion, has caused the death of an elderly woman named Begoña, who was in the women’s module”, he said.

The news further stated that in October of this year, the political prisoner from Chantrea cut his arm in protest of the lack of medical attention; on September 22, he carried out a 24-hour fast against the situation of inmates who require special food care; and on February 7 he also fasted for a whole day in rejection of prison health care.