The European Union and Council of Europe (CoE) must take “concrete steps to end the inhumane practices in Turkish prison conditions… and the Imrali Island Prison, which has become a primary [site] of isolation [as] torture,” the final conclusion of a European Parliament conference on political prisoners has stated. Scores of lawyers gathered in Brussels for the ‘Political Prisoners: Isolation, ill-treatment and torture’ conference, which addressed the detention conditions of political prisoners in Turkey and Europe, in particular the isolation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The event brought together Turkish and international lawyers and experts including Lena Lagnander, who joined an international delegation of lawyers in opposition to the Kurdish leader’s isolation, and shared findings from that visit to Turkey. The panel also heard from Mazlum Dinç from Asrın Law Office, the firm which represents Öcalan in Turkey. They have been obstructed from visiting or contacting their client, who has been imprisoned since 1999, for 36 months, in conditions reportedly amounting to torture.
The published resolution further explained: “This severe isolation practice, which is alarming for the Kurdish community, legal and democratic forces, is also a dimension of the intensified attack against the Kurdish people, including denial and annihilation. Isolation and the war targeting Kurdish people manifest different aspects of the same political approach… The struggle against isolation… constitutes one of the most important dynamics of the struggle for freedom and democracy, particularly in the context of Imrali island prison.”
The event’s published conclusions further called on the CoE’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) to “fulfil its responsibilities more effectively in monitoring and addressing the deepening problems in European prisons,” particularly with regards to İmralı. European lawyers attending the conference resolved to sign a petition “calling for the end of the ongoing isolation at İmralı Island Prison and the provision of lawyer visits,” following on from similar demands advanced by 1,330 Turkish lawyers in a recent legal petition.
The particular situation on İmralı was further linked to a general assault on the rule of law in Turkey, the conclusion added: “new administrative measures and legal techniques targeting political prisoners are being implemented almost daily in Turkey. Examples include new prison models, arbitrary… exile… revocation of all kinds of supervised release rights, access to health care, communication bans… torture and ill-treatment have become a part of everyday life.”
Other speakers addressed the detention of political prisoners in the Philippines, elsewhere in Turkey, targeting Basque and Catalan political prisoners, and the particular case of Italian anti-fascist prisoners being held in Hungary. The panel also heard opening video messages and speeches, including from Mauro Palma, former CPT chair, and Urko Aiartza Azurtza, co-president of European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights.
As such, the conclusions also included concrete demands to “monitor prison conditions in Hungary” and “intervene concretely against discriminatory…. regimes in the Basque Country, Turkey, and other countries” as well as calling for a further, more comprehensive conference to facilitate discussion between lawyers and individuals in different countries also facing repression.
