HDP MPs on Justice Watch against isolation in İmralı prison

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People's Democratic Party (HDP) MPs have been "keeping watch" in the Parliament (TBMM) for nearly a month, requesting that visiting of family members and lawyers should be permitted in the İmralı island prison for Abdullah Öcalan and for the other prisoners.

Today İmam Taşçıer, Diyarbakır MP of HDP talked on day 27 of the Justice Watch in TBMM and said that they were concerned about the health and also the life of Abdullah Öcalan and the other prisoners, Veysi Aktaş, Ömer Hayri Konar and Hamili Yıldırım who are kept in the İmralı prison.

"Imagine, there are 30 million Kurds in a country. However, they cannot even receive education in their mother tongue. There is nothing such as the Kurdish people in the Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye. All 30 million Kurds are denied. It is in this framework that Abdullah Öcalan is kept isolated."

HDP MP's and also co-chairpersons have made applications to the Ministry of Justice requesting that visiting should be allowed in İmralı prison, but have not yet received replies, said MP Ömer Öcalan on Day 22 of Justice Watch action.

"Long period of isolation after resolution process"

According to the motion by HDP Siirt MP Meral Danış Beştaş tabled, "a long period of isolation" started in the İmralı island prison "when the talks held there in the framework of the resolution process stopped in 2015."

The prisoners in İmralı island prison cannot use their right to a weekly telephone call to family members, the right to send and receive letters, or the right to be visited by their lawyers and family members, according to the motion which was not responded to until now.

These conditions are against the whole legal framework in the country, the HDP circles continue to express. 

"Neither the Constitution nor the laws of the Republic of Türkiye apply on the İmralı island," said HDP MP Kenanoğlu on day 23 of the Justice Watch actions.

Öcalan's isolation conditions

The leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been held in a high-security prison on İmralı Island for the last 23 years since February 1999.

The last time Öcalan's family members visited him was in March 2020. He hasn't been able to meet his lawyers since August 2019.

Öcalan's last contact with family members was a phone call with his brother on May 05, 2022, which was permitted after two years but was interrupted and ended. After this problematic connection, access to confirmed information from Öcalan was impossible. (AS/RT/PE)