Lawyers for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan have applied to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CPT), urgently calling on it to stand up to its responsibilities.
The Asrın Law Office has applied to the CPT regarding the absolute isolation conditions being imposed on the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, according to MA,
They declared that the ban on visits had continued systematically throughout the months of March, April, May and June, and requested that immediate action be taken.
The lawyers also detailed the nature of the applications they had made regarding Abdullah Öcalan, Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş – all inmates of İmralı Prison – and the responses they had received, and made a series of requests which sought to bring their isolation to an end.
The lawyers stated that, within the past four months, they had made 68 applications to meet with their clients, and also that 20 visit applications had been made by Öcalan’s sibling and his trustee and siblings of the other applicants.
The text of the application made to the CPT includes the lines, “The unlawful, de facto and arbitrarily applied removal of visitation rights has been consistent, and no family or legal visits are allowed. No legal visits have been allowed since 7 August 2019, and no family visits since 3 March 2020.”
The lawyers noted that having received no reply to their applications from Bursa Chief State Prosecution, they made an application to the Execution of Sentences Judicial Office in Bursa: “Our application for the correction of these conditions of imprisonment, which have been ongoing for years, was rejected in contravention of the law and statutes.”
Asrın Law Office stated that its clients were also not being given their letters, and called upon the CPT to carry out its duty, laying out a list of requests aiming at bringing an end to the torture and inhuman treatment. Asrın Law Office urgently applied to the CPT to:
* Arrange a visit to İmralı Island urgently,
* Secure the reestablishment on a permanent basis of legal visits,
* Secure the reestablishment on a permanent basis of family and trustee visits, and ensure that the unlawful disciplinary punishments and obstructions be brought to an end,
* Ensure an end to all impediments to letters and communication equipment such as fax machines,
* Ensure an end to the de facto and unlawful practices regarding newspapers, magazines and books,
* Set in to motion measures and procedures to force the removal of the conditions for torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.
