Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who has been denied access to his family and lawyers for 28 months in Turkey’s İmralı Island Prison, has been subjected to yet another indefinite disciplinary punishment. His continued isolation, which began in March 2021, has been repeatedly extended, citing disciplinary penalties.
The request made by Öcalan’s lawyers on 10 July for a family visit was rejected on 19 July, with the reason cited being the imposition of a new disciplinary punishment. However, the specific date and grounds for this punishment have not been disclosed.
The lawyers representing Öcalan have regularly applied to legal authorities for meetings with their client and family visits at İmralı Prison. These applications often remain unanswered or are refused, using ambiguous disciplinary penalties as the justification for the denials.
The first official ban on family visits, which began after a brief interrupted phone call between Öcalan and his brother in March 2021, ended on 18 November 2021. However, since that date, new disciplinary penalties have been imposed every three or six months, perpetuating the visitation restrictions.
Lawyers took the prevention of family visits through “unlawful” disciplinary penalties to the Constitutional Court on 12 May 2022. In their application to the Constitutional Court, lawyers highlighted the state of incommunicado, emphasising that being unable to receive news from outside amounts to torture. The Constitutional Court has not yet responded to this application at the time of reporting.
Abdullah Öcalan has been held in severe isolation for 24 years, with no contact with the outside world for over two years. It was not until April 2020 that he was allowed to have a phone conversation. The last time his lawyers were able to meet with him was in 2019, after an eight-year hiatus.
