Shafaq News/  Bahdinan activists announced on Monday a hunger strike after postponing their trial to further notice.

The detainees are held in custody pending trial for charges of compromising national security in the wake of the bloody protests that took place in al-Sulaymaniyah late last year.

"The case has been postponed to further notice. The detainees started a hunger strike because they became desperate," member of the defense team, lawyer Bechdar Hasan, said  in a press conference earlier today, "they cannot tolerate postponing their trial again."

On July 13, the court of Erbil, Kurdistan's capital city, tabled the trial to further notice, according to the defense team.

"This time, the case was postponed because new magistrates are on the case. Probably, they are not acquainted enough about the case," he noted, "this case is sensitive. The evidence against them is weak. This case shall be studied carefully by the judges before the issuance of the ruling."

On June 27, 2021, Kurdistan's court of Appeal ratified a six-year imprisonment sentence against the activists after convicting them for attempting to topple the government. The court refused to reconsider the ruling, a judicial source told Shafaq News Agency.