ISTANBUL - Receiving the file prepared by Kurdish politicians on the isolation on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, the CPT stated that it is following the issue closely.

 

Kurdish politicians, who staged a sit in in front of the Council of Europe (EC) building against the isolation imposed upon PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı High Security Type F Closed Prison, delivered the file they prepared to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) yesterday.

 

CPT: WE ARE IN ACTIVE DIALOGUE WITH IMRALI

 

Receiving the file prepared by Kurdish politicians on the isolation and violations of rights in Turkish prisons, CPT officials said, “We attribute great importance to situation in Imrali. We are following the issue closely. We as the CPT are not working transperantly due to the nature of our work. We cannot explain what we are doing. But we are actively working on this issue. Earlier in 2019, we had a report on Imrali. There are violations that we have mentioned in this report. Our dialogue process with Turkey continues actively in order to eliminate these violations and we will continue to do so.”

 

NO CONTACT FOR MONTHS

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in Imrali Prison since he was handed over to Turkey with an international conspiracy on February 15, 1999, is under aggravated isolation. Öcalan is prevented from meeting with his family and lawyers. Öcalan has had only 5 meetings with his lawyers since 2011. Öcalan was able to make a phone call with his brother Mehmet Öcalan on March 25, which was also interrupted. There has been no news from Öcalan since that date.

 

As there has been no news from Öcalan and other detainees on İmralı Island, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, Asrın Law Office's lawyers applied to the the Bursa Execution Judge, the Ministry of Justice, the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses, the Human Rights Department and the Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission as well as international legal institutions and non-governmental organizations. 

 

It was revealed that Öcalan was banned from meeting with his lawyers for 6 months on 12 October and for 3 months on 18 August, following the lawyers' application to Bursa Execution Judge for a meeting.

 

MA / Ferhat Çelik