PKK leader Öcalan in good health, prosecutor's office say after death rumors

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has announced that the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan is "alive and in good health."

It has dismissed the allegations as "unfounded" and said, "We urge the public to disregard such news."

The statement comes after rumors on social media about his death over the past two days.

Öcalan's attorneys said yesterday (March 15) that he had not been able to make contact with outside since his phone conversation with his brother in April 2020.

They made applications to the prosecutor's office to meet Öcalan yesterday and today.

CLICK - Öcalan's attorneys made 962 applications to meet him, only five were accepted

CLICK - PKK Leader Öcalan talks to his family on the phone after 21 years

Serving his aggravated life sentence, Öcalan is held at the high security prison on İmralı island in Bursa, northwestern Turkey.

During his nearly 22-year imprisonment, Öcalan has often been prevented from seeing or communicating with his lawyers and family members.

His attorneys had not been allowed to visit him for about eight years in a ban that ended in May 2019 after months of hunger strikes by prisoners from around the country and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Leyla Güven. (EKN/VK)