The aggravated execution regime in the İmralı Island Prison, where Abdullah Öcalan has been held since his capture in 1999, is confirmed as a “regime of torture since the beginning” by the top court in Europe, Öcalan’s lawyers told reporters on Tuesday as they announced their annual report on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader’s prison conditions.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in a ruling in March 2014, said the conditions in İmralı were in violation of the prohibition of torture.
“The violation occurred when the legal regulation was introduced,” the lawyers cited the ECHR as saying, “the aggravated execution regime of İmralı has been a regime of torture since the beginning.”
They said the prison itself was constructed “specifically for Abdullah Öcalan, completely overriding domestic and international law”.
Öcalan and several other high-profile PKK prisoners have been held under “conditions of extraordinary isolation”, the lawyers said, and have been deprived of all methods of communication save for a few visits and phone calls over 22 years, “despite the fact that these are guaranteed by the constitution, international conventions and domestic legislation”.
“In short, İmralı Island Prison is a place where fundamental rights and freedoms have been systematically violated since the day it was established,” they said.
Öcalan and several other high-profile PKK prisoners have been held under “conditions of extraordinary isolation”, the lawyers said, and have been deprived of all methods of communication save for a few visits and phone calls over 22 years, “despite the fact that these are guaranteed by the constitution, international conventions and domestic legislation”.
“In short, İmralı Island Prison is a place where fundamental rights and freedoms have been systematically violated since the day it was established,” they said.
Öcalan’s lawyers at the Asrın Law Office last heard from their client on March 25, 2021. Even under COVID-19 pandemic conditions, the İmralı prisoners were kept incommunicado, and their lawyers and families have been unable to verify their health status, detention conditions, legal situation, or any other matters.
Since the “new authoritarian and oppressive regime” was introduced in Turkey in the wake of the state of emergency that followed the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt, annual status reports on the island prison have demonstrated a lack of legal security and predictability. The available legal supervision mechanisms remained ineffective, according to the lawyers.
Öcalan’s family and lawyers filed 71 appeals throughout 2021, but all of them were left unanswered, and no visits could take place. For the remaining İmralı prisoners, a total of 202 appeals were made, which also went unanswered.
İmralı prisoners are entitled to lawyers’ visits at any time during business hours, while family visits are allowed every 15 days under the law.
The last contact with Öcalan occurred following a series of allegations on the PKK leader’s health and wellbeing, sparking outrage online on March 14, 2021. Öcalan was able to speak with his brother on the phone, but the call was cut short after four minutes. None of the prisoners received any in-person visitors.
Öcalan, following his placement in İmralı on February 15, 1999, was held in a solitary cell as the only prisoner in the complex for 12 years. When other inmates were brought in, the group was allowed to meet for one hour every day, each spending the remaining 23 hours in solitary.
His lawyers were allowed a total of five visits between May and August 2019, following a period of no contact since July 2011. Since 2014, Öcalan’s family has been able to make a total of five visits, the last one in March 2020 by his brother.
The most recent phone calls Öcalan was able to make had more than one year between them, taking place on April 27, 2020, and March 25, 2021.
İmralı prisoners Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş, have not been allowed to see their lawyers at all since they were placed in the prison in 2015. The most recent contact with Konar and Aktaş was on April 27, 2020.
A March 2021 appeal by the lawyers to lift the prisoners’ communication bans, including sending and receiving letters, was rejected by the prosecutor within one day. The prison administration cited an undisclosed “disciplinary penalty” in its rejection.
The most recent ban on phone calls for Öcalan was issued on September 7, 2020, for a span of six months. Despite the much longer time passed after, or the fact that the law only allows communication bans of up to three months, lawyers have not been able to communicate with their clients.
In August 2021, the prison issued a disciplinary penalty restricting the prisoners’ right to receive family visits, and in the following October, the execution judge banned lawyer visits for another six months. Despite objections, the penalties were made final.
An appeal to Turkey’s Constitutional Court (AYM) was rejected on January 12, 2022. The AYM “did not consider the total suspension of all rights and the total ban on all contact with the outside world unlawful, rejecting our request for an injunction”, said the lawyers.
In December 2021, the lawyers filed criminal complaints against all judges and prosecutors involved with the case for failing to abide by the constitution and laws in the context of rights violations in the İmralı prison. There has been no development yet.
Several appeals were also made to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), but the top body “did not take any action against the İmralı Isolation System in 2021, thus remaining entirely ineffective”.
“In 2021, different relevant persons, groups, and institutions became aware of the fact that rather than practices targeting one particular person, the İmralı Isolation System constitutes an overall administrative mechanism that was first invented on the island from where it spread to the whole country and society,” the lawyers said, following documents sent to state officials, European organisations, NGOs and bar associations.
The reasons cited for communication bans and bans on visits include disciplinary penalties, which were first announced to lawyers in a timely fashion that allowed them to appeal such decisions back in 2018 but were later made classified, shutting down any possible intervention by lawyers. They were also not given access to documents detailing the penalties after the appeal period was over, which violates laws that provide the lawyers with the right to examine files against their clients and thus the right to a fair trial, they said.
“The rights to defense, a fair trial, access to a court, and remedy have altogether been violated by the administrative and judicial authorities,” they added.
“The aggravation of the state of isolation in İmralı leads to the abolition of rights and freedoms in Turkey. Today, there is a cause-effect relationship between the deteriorating conditions in the country and the absolute isolation/incommunicado detention in İmralı,” they said.
