The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held under severe isolation in İmralı prison, has not been allowed to meet with his family or lawyers for more than 18 months due to disciplinary penalties and visitation prohibitions.
Öcalan’s lawyers requested the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to urgently visit the PKK leader and other prisoners in İmralı island in September. On 3 October, the CPT announced that a delegation had visited the İmralı Prison, where PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and detainees Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım were held, between 20-29 September. However, an information note on the details of the visit was not shared.
It has been revealed that Öcalan and other prisoners have been given a disciplinary penalty for the 12th time since 2018, after the Bursa Execution Judge rejected the lawyers’ request to meet with Öcalan once again on 5 October. The three-month disciplinary penalty was finalised on 28 September, when the CPT delegation visited İmralı Prison.
The previous three-month visitation prohibition imposed on Öcalan and other detainees by the İmralı Disciplinary Board ended on 15 September. The lawyers applied for a visit on 16 September, after the end of the ban. However, no response was given to the application. In the repeated application on 23 September, the lawyers demanded the files of the disciplinary penalty if there is one. Bursa Execution Judge rejected the application on 5 October. The objections made by the lawyers against the disciplinary penalty were not taken into consideration.
