The conditions of prolonged and absolute isolation under which prisoners are detained in Turkey’s İmralı Island Prison are illegitimate according to both national and international legal standards, said the country’s Human Rights Association (İHD), adding that criticising the isolation system in İmralı is not a crime according to universal legal norms.
İHD’s statement came after journalist Merdan Yanardağ was detained on Monday for criticising, during a TV broadcast, the ongoing incommunicado detention imposed on imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı.
İHD stated that the investigation launched against the journalist amounted to the use of judicial means to suppress freedom of thought. The association called on Turkish authorities to abandon the punitive measures against Yanardağ.
The country’s professional media bodies and opposition parties also expressed objections to Yanardağ’s arrest and called for his “immediate release”.
The Journalists’ Association underscored that Yanardağ’s arrest was part of a smear campaign, while the Contemporary Journalists Association publicly questioned the legal basis for his detention.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), also responded to Yanardağ’s arrest. “We once again remind the judiciary that it should take action against those who fail to enforce the laws in İmralı, rather than targeting those who criticise the isolation imposed on Mr. Öcalan,” the HDP headquarters said.
Yanardağ, editor-in-chief of the internet TV channel TELE1, criticised the secretive policies of the Turkish government and remarked, during the programme on Sunday night, that Öcalan had been turned into a bargaining chip by the country’s ruling parties.
Following the broadcast, government-affiliated media outlets targeted Yanardağ and accused him of “praising Öcalan”.
On Monday, Yanardağ gave another televised interview explaining that his words had been taken out of context. Directly after this broadcast he was placed under arrest.
An investigation was also launched against the TELE1 channel in connection with airing Yanardağ’s remarks about Öcalan
