After meetings in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir (Amed) on Friday, an international delegation against the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan held a press conference and called on Turkey to establish the rule of law in İmralı Island Prison. The delegation also called on European states to not sacrifice human rights for the sake of economic interests.
The international delegation came to Turkey on Wednesday to hold talks with several organisations regarding the absolute incommunicado state of jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and three other inmates in the İmralı Island Prison in northwest Turkey. The delegation also met with the families of the prisoners.
On behalf of the delegation, Emma Persichetti, a lawyer from the Rome Bar Association, said that there has clearly been a serious deterioration since the detention conditions in İmralı prison were examined by the European Court of Human Rights in 2013. “The time allowed for social contact and physical activity appears to be reduced to one hour per week, well below the already limited time allowed when the ECHR last examined the case,” said Persichetti.
“However, even this information dates back to 22 months ago,” she added.
Expressing that the delegation is also deeply concerned about the pressure on human rights activists and lawyers who are fighting against the isolation in Turkey, Persichetti said, “We call for an effective and comprehensive investigation into the allegations of serious human rights violations reported to us.”
Öcalan has been held in a solitary cell in İmralı Prison since 15 February 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 only five times between 2011 and 2019. Since 2019, his lawyers have never been able to visit him. Numerous visitation applications were rejected or left unanswered.
Öcalan met with his family members five times since 2014. The last face-to-face meeting was with his brother in March 2020. A phone call was allowed on 25 March 2021 and that was the last date that anyone has had contact with him.
