For the first time, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment (CPT) has replied to questions from the Kurdish Fırat News Agency concerning the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan in Turkey’s İmralı Island Prison. Although the CPT sharply criticised the conditions in the prison, it has also avoided publishing on the subject, on the grounds that the Turkish state would not allow it.
The CPT has reportedly been urged in the past to answer questions about the situation on İmralı, but has turned down all previous requests. On 10 October 2023, Kurds and their allies initiated a global campaign titled ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, A Political Solution to the Kurdish Issue’, marked by global and local protests along with hunger strikes in Turkish prisons that aimed to put pressure on the CPT.
Since his capture in 1999, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Öcalan has been in solitary confinement on the prison island of İmralı in Turkey. His last direct contact with lawyers took place in August 2019, while his latest communication with a family member was a brief phone call in the spring of 2021, which was suddenly curtailed by the prison authorities.
In their answers, the CPT stated that it has visited İmralı prison nine times so far, with the last visit taking place in September 2022. Upon being asked why the report of this last visit has not been published, the CPT responded that they hadn’t received authorisation from Turkey.
The CPT made its concerns about the situation of Abdullah Öcalan and the other prisoners on İmralı island clear, also saying that the fact that they are held in solitary confinement for “159 hours out of 168 hours per week” was a “state of affairs that is not acceptable”. They continued, “If it considers it necessary, the CPT will carry out a further visit to the site”, without further clarifying if a future visit is planned to date.
Stating that they are in regular contact with both Turkish state officials and the lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan, they said, “the CPT follows the situation of Abdullah Öcalan and the three other prisoners very closely.”
Regarding the incommunicado detention of Abdullah Öcalan that has lasted over three years, the CPT said that it has “repeatedly stressed in its dialogue with the Turkish authorities that the continuous denial of visits by lawyers and family members is not acceptable and clearly contravenes various relevant international human rights instruments and standards”.
There have been rising worries about the treatment of the prisoners on İmralı island, with many calling the ongoing isolation a form of torture, among them former CPT presidents Mauro Palma and Marc Neve.
Although the CPT itself stated concerns about the situation in their answers, it also claimed that during previous delegations to İmralı, they had received “no allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners by prison officers at Imralı Prison”.
Another question regarding comments by former CPT presidents Mauro Palma and Marc Neve, who have each visited İmralı several times, in which they said that İmralı was not a suitable location for a prison and that CPT should be more active in relation to the conditions of Öcalan’s detention, was left unanswered by the CPT.
