The isolation imposed on jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan is “a purely political practice,” his brother Mehmet Öcalan told ANF on Tuesday.
Mehmet Öcalan had not heard from his brother Abdullah Öcalan, incarcerated in İmralı prison, for over a year, he said.
“Those sentenced to imprisonment or remanded in custody have the right to see their lawyers and family according to the law in Turkey,” he added, “But when it comes to İmralı Prison, this right is ignored.”
Applications by lawyers and family members for contact have all been rejected on a pretext of disciplinary punishment, he said. “The last time I had some kind of communication with my brother, I was only allowed to talk to him for five minutes.”
“This has gone beyond isolation, it is necessary to find a new name for it”, he added. “This practice is unrelated to the law.”
“I don’t care if the [pro-Turkish government] columnist Abdulkadir Selvi has claimed that Abdullah Öcalan will be allowed meet with me,” he said. “I have no expectations from this state and its laws […] We want this to be dealt with on a legal basis, not on the basis of rumours. We want our legal and democratic rights to be granted to us.”
Mehmet Öcalan also criticised political parties that claimed to defend democracy but remained silent in the face of what he called lawlessness.
