PKK leader Öcalan's lawyers: No news from İmralı Prison for 8 months

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The Asrın Law Office has announced that it has been unable to receive any news of jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners held in İmralı Prison, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, for the past eight months.

In a message on its Twitter account, the Asrın Law Office has stated that it has separately applied to the Justice Ministry, General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses and Human Rights Department, requesting that the state of receiving no information from Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners be brought to an end and a physical contact be enabled with the prisoners.

Request for examination on site

The lawyers have also announced that they have applied to the Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission and requested that an on-site examination be conducted in İmralı Prison and the state of receiving no information from there be brought to an end.

The petition of the lawyers has indicated that "their clients have been totally deprived of devices that would enable them to communicate with the outside world," underlining that this action is based on "administrative and judicial decisions devoid of a legal ground."

Expressing "deep concerns" about the prisoners' medical conditions and the conditions where they are held, the Asrın Law Bureau has underlined that "this situation is also against the international conventions that Turkey is a party to and universal legal norms and values."

Accordingly, the lawyers have requested that an on-site examination be carried out in the İmralı High Security Closed Prison, a physical contact with their clients, of whom there has been no news for 8 months, be ensured via family and lawyers visitations and the state of ambiguity about their prison conditions, lives and medical conditions be brought to an end."

The Asrın Law Bureau announced on November 22 that they applied to the Bursa Judgeship of Execution, demanding an immediate meeting with Abdullah Öcalan and the other three prisoners in İmralı.

Last visitation on August 7, 2019

Held in İmralı Prison for 22 years, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan could meet his lawyers on August 7, 2019 the last time.

Following this visitation, his lawyers have received no positive or negative response to their applications for visitation. (KÖ/SD)