Faike Aktaş, mother of Veysi Aktaş who is held under conditions of complete incommunicado in İmralı prison alongside Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, told the International Delegation against Isolation that she does not know whether her son is dead or alive, reported Mezopotamya News.
No visits have been allowed since her son was transferred to İmralı prison eight years ago, Faike told the delegation when they visited Turkey last week.
None of the four political prisoners confined at İmralı have had any contact with the outside world since March 2021. Veysi Aktaş is held in isolation alongside the founding leader of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan, Ömer Hayri Konar, and Hamili Yıldırım.
The International Delegation against Isolation, made up of 36 lawyers and MPs from across Europe and South Africa, visited Veysi’s mother as part of their stand against the conditions of absolute incommunicado imposed on prisoners inside northwest Turkey’s prison island.
Faike told delegates that Veysi’s father had died two months ago, but she had not been able to inform her son, nor could he attend the funeral. “We have no information about him,” Faike said.
The three other prisoners at İmralı are subjected to similar conditions. Öcalan has been held in a solitary cell since 1999. His right to see his lawyers was limited to one hour a week for the first 12 years, however, he was constantly prevented from exercising this right. He met with his lawyers five times between 2011 and 2019. Since 2019, lawyer visits have been blocked. Numerous visitation applications were rejected or left unanswered.
After three days of visits and meetings in the country, the International Delegation against Isolation called on Turkey to “end the discriminatory system” by which the sentences of political prisoners are executed.
