Besê Hozat, co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) executive council, spoke to Medya Haber on Monday about the isolation imposed on jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in Turkey’s İmralı prison island.
Öcalan, founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has been serving a life sentence in strict isolation conditions since 1999. His last contact with the outside world was in March 2021 in the form of an interrupted phone call with his brother.
Regarding the international response to Öcalan’s isolation, Hozat said that Kurds are not satisfied with the United Nations (UN), Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) or the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). “These people and movement expect concrete steps from these powers,” she said.
On 23 January a UN Human Rights Committee demanded an end to the incommunicado status of the prisoners at İmralı Prison and expect Turkey to respond to their request by the end of March.
Hozat added that UN member states organised a conspiracy against Öcalan in 1999 when he sought refuge from Turkey, and delivered him back to the country to face isolation.
