Abdullah Öcalan’s representatives at the Asrın Law Office appealed to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) for urgent measures to restore the rights to lawyer and family visits for the jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founding leader, Mezopotamya Agency reported on Thursday.
Öcalan has been held in a special prison in Turkey’s northwestern İmralı Island since his trial and conviction in 1999. For more than 26 months, he has not been allowed to make any contact with the outside world. Turkish authorities have left 43 appeals by his lawyers and 26 by his family members to visit Öcalan unanswered between December 2022 and April 2023.
Upon appeals to the related courts, lawyers were informed of Öcalan being issued six-month communication bans over minor infractions. The situation constitutes a reversal of norms where prisoners are increasingly subjected to such bans and denials of requests of communication with their families, the lawyers said.
The CPT should take urgent action, they said in the appeal to the anti-torture watchdog. Öcalan should be allowed to meet with his lawyers, unlawful disciplinary penalties should be lifted, obstacles to communication should be removed, and Öcalan should be able to exercise his right to receive newspapers, magazines and books from the outside world, the lawyers said. They believe the CPT should take coercive measures to end the conditions of torture and inhumane treatment of Öcalan, in compliance with the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The lawyers also lodged an application with the Bursa public prosecutor’s office and the İmralı Prison’s administration, requesting a meeting with their client.