ANKARA - The head of the CPT delegation, Therese Rytter, which visited İmralı, stated that she could not give information about Abdullah Öcalan for now, and said that the report would be sent to Turkey in 6 months.

 

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CPT), affiliated to the Council of Europe (EC), published a statement regarding their visit to Turkey on 20-29 September. Imrali Type F High Security Prison was among the institutions visited by the CPT. The CPT announced that it went to İmralı to examine the conditions of detention of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and prisoners Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş, and that special attention was paid to the social activities offered in İmralı and the contact of the prisoners with the outside world.

 

The CPT delegation consulted with Deputy Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek and Director General of Prisons and Detention Houses, Enis Yavuz Yıldırım, as well as other senior officials of the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs on the implementation of long-standing sanctions and the CPT's recommendations regarding İmralı Prison.

 

REPORT WILL BE SENT 6 MONTHS LATER

 

Therese Rytter, the head of the delegation who visited İmralı and the 2nd Vice President of the CPT reached by the Mesopotamia Agency (MA), We will adopt the report and send it to the Turkish govt in March 2023. Turkey then has 6 months to respond - and it’s then up to the to decide whether they want to publish the CPT report."

 

NO INFORMATION ABOUT ABDULLAH ÖCALAN WAS GIVEN

 

To our question about the health condition of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Rytter said: "I can say that we can visit all prisoners in Turkey but I cannot reveal our findings. These will be disclosed if/when the report will be made public."

 

2019 REPORT NOT PUBLISHED

 

CPT last visited İmralı in 2019. To our question about why the report of that visit was not published yet, Rytter said: "It is the member state that decides whether a CPT report (and the state response) gets published, not the CPT. So you have to ask the Turkish Government. The State itself may request publication of the CPT's report, together with its own response. So far, most States have chosen to publish these documents. If a State fails to co-operate or refuses to improve the situation in the light of the CPT's recommendations, the Committee may decide to make a public statement. In addition, the CPT draws up a general Report on its activities, which is published once a year."

 

MA / Gozde Cagri Ozkose