ISTANBUL - Asrın Law Firm made a new application to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and İmralı Prison Directorate to meet with their client, PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, whom they had not heard from for 31 months.

 

Cengiz Yürekli, Raziye Öztürk, İbrahim Bilmez and Emran Emekçi, lawyers of Asrın Law Firm, applied again to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the İmralı Penitentiary Institution Directorate to meet with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is held under severe isolation conditions in İmralı Type F High Security Prison and has not been heard from for 31 months. Lawyers also applied to the prosecutor's office and prison directorate for Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, who are held in İmralı.

 

OBSTACLE MEETINGS

 

The lawyers, who did not receive a positive or negative response to their applications twice a week to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, therefore made a new application to the Bursa Criminal Execution Judgeship on November 22, 2021, requesting an "immediate meeting". The judgeship rejected the application, citing the 6-month lawyer visit ban given on October 12, 2021 and the 3-month family visit ban decision given on August 18, 2021 for Abdullah Öcalan; however, lawyers were not given any information about the decisions that justified the ban.

 

BAN ON FAMILY VISITS

 

Although the ban on family visits ended on November 18, 2021, there was no response to the families' applications to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. On March 28, the lawyers once again applied to the Bursa Execution Judgeship and requested that all unlawful obstacles to family visits be removed and family visits be held. Responding to the application on March 29, the Judgeship rejected the request. In its justification for rejection, the judgeship claimed that there was a new disciplinary penalty given against Abdullah Öcalan, and therefore the meeting could not take place. In the rejection decision of the judgeship, it was stated that "The request was rejected on the grounds that all applicants were sentenced to deprivation of family visits for 3 months as a disciplinary penalty by the İmralı Disciplinary Board Presidency on February 3, 2022, and it became final on February 21."

 

NEW 'DISCIPLINARY PENALTY'

 

Lawyers made a new application to Bursa Execution Judgeship on July 10, 2023, requesting the visits of the families of Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners. Rejecting the application on July 18, the judgeship stated that there was a new "disciplinary punishment" given against Öcalan and other prisoners, who have not been allowed to see their lawyers and families for 28 months. The judgeship, which notified the lawyers of the decision on July 19, did not provide information on the date and on what grounds the sentence was given.

 

OBSTACLE TO VISIT WAS CARRIED TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

 

Lawyers brought the blocking of family visits with unlawful disciplinary penalties to the Constitutional Court (AYM) on May 12, following the rejection decision of the judgeship. In their application to the Constitutional Court, the lawyers drew attention 'Incommunicado', which is the state of absolute lack of communication, and demanded that "not being able to receive information is torture, and that the right to respect for family and private life, the right to defense and a fair trial, and the right to an effective remedy are violated."

 

DE FACTO APPLICATION

 

Lawyers of Asrın Law Firm recently applied once again to Bursa Execution Judgeship, after the 3-month family visit ban imposed on their clients on February 3, on the grounds of disciplinary punishment, ended on June 7. In the application, it was requested that the disciplinary penalty period had expired and that all obstacles imposed on the family's visits should be removed and that new disciplinary penalties, if any, should be communicated to the parties. Responding to the lawyers' application one day later, the Execution Judgeship rejected the lawyers' application again, claiming that the disciplinary penalties were still in effect.

 

Following the rejection decision of the Execution Judgeship, the lawyers appealed to Bursa 1st High Criminal Court on June 15.

 

UNKNOWN NEW PENALTY

 

Responding to the objection on June 23, the court rejected the objection, citing the fact that a new 3-month disciplinary penalty was given by the İmralı Disciplinary Board Presidency on May 31 for Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners.

 

6-MONTH LAWYER VISIT BAN

 

Abdullah Öcalan was also banned from meeting a lawyer for 6 months by the Bursa Execution Judgeship on October 12, 2021. Although the visit ban ended on April 22, the lawyers, who were not allowed to meet with their clients, did not receive any response to all their applications for opinion. Thereupon, an application was made to Bursa Execution Judgeship once again on April 29. The judgeship responded to the lawyers' application on the same day and again rejected the request for a meeting. The reason given for rejecting the request for a visit was the 6-month ban on visiting lawyers given by the judgeship on April 13. Again, no information was given to lawyers about the reason for the ban.

 

PKK Leader Öcalan benefited from his right to call by phone for the first time on April 27, 2020. Abdullah Öcalan spoke to his brother Mehmet Öcalan by phone again on March 25, 2021, as public concerns grew following some allegations in the social media; however, Mehmet Öcalan announced that this meeting was interrupted.

 

NO MEETING FOR 4 YEARS

 

Rezan Sarıca and Nevroz Uysal, two of Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers, were last able to meet with their client after 8 years on May 2-22, June 12-18 and August 7, 2019. Lawyers have not been allowed to meet with their clients since that date.

 

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ASKED FOR VISIT FROM THE MINISTRY

 

The Ministry of Justice was asked for its visit on 23 of the applications made to the Constitutional Court (AYM) by Asrın Law Firm in the last 8 years. The Ministry submitted its visit to the Constitutional Court on lawyer bans, family disciplinary bans, telephone rights, bans in İmralı during the State of Emergency (OHAL) and many similar issues.

 

ACCORDING TO THE MINISTRY, THERE IS NO 'ILL-TREATMENT'!

 

In its visit submitted to the Constitutional Court on March 24 regarding the application to prevent lawyers and family visits, the Ministry claimed that there was no "ill-treatment" in İmralı, that there were disruptions in the meetings due to "unforeseen reasons" and that this situation was "reasonable".

 

ECtHR DECISION WAS COUNTERFEITED

 

The Ministry of Justice, which gave its opinion to the Constitutional Court regarding the post-state of emergency restrictions in İmralı, this time presented the arguments in the government's "Öcalan 2" decision to the court as "ECtHR's findings". Lawyers, on the other hand, stated that the ministry falsified the ECtHR decision to legitimize the isolation.