İSTANBUL - It has been disclosed that Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and three other prisoners in Imralı were given a new disciplinary sentence on 21 October.
Abdullah Öcalan and the other prisoners in Imrali Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş remain under isolation. In addition it has been disclosed that the four prisoners were given disciplinary penalties according to new information.
Lawyers had been able to meet with Öcalan for the first time, after an 8-year hiatus, on 2 May this year. Subsequent they were granted visist on 22 May, 12 June, 18 June and 7 August.
While previous applications for visit were arbitrarily and systematically rejected with a number of reasons (bad weather, boat broken), the applications made after 7 August have all gone unanswered.
The other three prisoners were transferred to Imralı during the so-called “solution process”.
Since 2015, Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım have been able to meet with their families only on 5 June and 12 August 2019.
A new disciplinary decision was taken on 21 October against Öcalan and the three other names.
Ibrahim Bilmez, one of the lawyers of the Asrın Law Office, and lawyer of the detainees in Imralı, recalled that the prison administration gave a disciplinary penalty on 10 July to Öcalan and the others.
Bilmez said that a new disciplinary sentence was imposed on 21 October after the end of this sentence.
According to Bilmez, other prisoners, except Öcalan, objected to the disciplinary penalty of the administration.
Speaking to our agency, Bilmez said, "Mr. Öcalan does not object to these punishments because he thinks these disciplinary punishments are political. Mr. Öcalan is being sanctioned but the legal process is continuing because our other clients' objection."
Bilmez stated that they had learned about the last disciplinary punishment on 29 November and added that they appealed the punishment against Öcalan and the other clients but their objection was rejected.
Bilmez added that the disciplinary sanctions given to Öcalan and other clients are sealed and therefore it is impossible for lawyers to know their content.
Bilmez said that the disciplinary sanctions can include the ban on visits for families, however not the visits by lawyers.