DİYARBAKIR - Stating that the isolation in Imrali can be considered as torture from a legal point of view, Attorney Mesut Beştaş said, “Torture and ill-treatment are crimes that do not have a statute of limitations. The approach that protects human dignity must be reminded to the government."
PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held in aggravated isolation for 23 years in İmralı Type F High Security Closed Prison, to which he was brought on 15 February 1999 with an international conspiracy. Öcalan, who was not allowed to meet with his family and lawyers, has not been heard from since the last interrupted phone call on 25 March. The talks, which were previously blocked for reasons such as the "weather opposition", continued with the ban decisions taken for a period of 6 months after the State of Emergency (OHAL) was declared on July 20, 2016, by the decision of the Bursa 1st Execution Judge. Later, meetings were blocked on the grounds of the 156-page "Road Map" that Öcalan submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2009. This ban was sustained by a disciplinary sanction given to Öcalan in January without informing his lawyers. Finally, in the investigation launched on the grounds that Öcalan was pacing up and down in his cell on September 10, 2018, revealed that the meetings were prevented by the disciplinary penalty imposed on September 14, 2018.
Stating that isolation is considered as ill-treatment in the domestic and international law and that it is rejected by law because of practices that turn into torture, lawyer Mesut Beştaş said, “Unfortunately, when we look at the history of prisons in Turkey, isolation is used a lot."
THE SWORD OF DEMOCLES
Stating that the isolation aims to separate Öcalan from society, Beştaş said: “Imrali isolation has become a scale for the governments of the Republic of Turkey to solve the Kurdish problem. Whenever there is an approach, a moderation to the solution of the Kurdish problem, the isolation is eased; whenever the intended policy on the Kurds is denial and annihilation, then the isolation is tightened. Therefore, we have to deal with the isolation in Imrali from a multidimensional perspective. From a legal point of view, it can be considered as ill-treatment or torture. In another aspect, it has been turned into a practice applied like Damocles' sword on the Kurdish people."
CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
Pointing out that the isolation is considered a crime against humanity in Article 77 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), Beştaş said, It is also a crime without a statute of limitations. However, due to the functioning of the government and the practices imposed in Imrali, it is not possible to prosecute the perpetrators in crimes that occur during the isolation. However, if this situation is taken seriously in international courts in the European Court of Human Rights, it will be accepted as ill-treatment or torture. These should be reminded to the government."