For millions of Kurds and Kurdish, Abdullah Öcalan is considered its political leader, even though it has been in a Turkish jail. As Nelson Mandela, he is considered key to a fair future for his people. His ideas promote radical democracy, women's rights and multiethnic coexistence, and are the inspiration of the democratic autonomous administration of the North and East of Syria (AADNES).
At present, there is an international campaign for its freedom, but the report summarized below is simply focused on its detention conditions. Against national and international legislation, it is in almost total isolation. The contact with his family and his lawyers has always been restricted, and for almost three years, in a regime of absolute lack of communication, without any contact with the outside world.
In Report 2023, the law firm and lawyers defending the Kurdish leader and other prisoners İmralı, denounced that Öcalan has been held in a lonely cell in the island's prison since February 15, 1999. During the first ten years He was the only prisoner there. Six other prisoners were transferred in 2009, but he continued in insulation regime 23 hours a day during the week and 24 hours on weekends. At present, there are three other prisoners on the island, in addition to Öcalan. These three men have been there since 2015 and are equally isolated.
During the first twelve years, the right of Öcalan to see a lawyer was limited -ilegally- in one hour a week, but the authorities prevented him from exercising even this limited right, claiming problems with the weather or the state of the ship that communicates the island. Since July 2011, he has only been able to meet with his lawyers five times, all between May and August 2019, after a mass hunger strike demanding his release. Since 2014, only five family visits have been allowed. The last face to face was with his brother, in March 2020. In almost 15 years he has only allowed two telephone calls; The last one, in March 2021, was interrupted shortly after starting. Nothing is known about Öcalan since that day.
The UN Human Rights Committee asked Turkey in September 2022 to allow prisoners without restrictions on a lawyer of their election, but this has not had an effect, despite the renewal of this petition in January 2023 .
There have been numerous requests before the Turkish Constitutional Court in relation to these illegal conditions, and the lawyers have also filed complaints before the Union of Bar Associations of Turkey and the Superior Council of Judges and Prosecutors, all of them without result.
The European Committee for Torture Prevention (CPT) has constantly criticized prison conditions, but without result. Recognizing that the CPT cannot issue the report on your September 2022, without the consent of Turkey, lawyers have asked them to invoke article 10/2 and make a statement regarding the conditions in İMrald.
In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the life imprisonment without probation of Mr. Öcalan was torture by denying the right to hope. The Committee of Ministers did not give course to this judgment until 2021. The committee commissioned Turkey to guarantee the existence of a mechanism for reviewing convictions and that he informed him of the number of other prisoners convicted of non -revisable life imprisonment. Turkey has not acted in both cases, and the Committee has ignored the requests of what follow -up.
The denial of legally guaranteed rights in İMralı has been parallel to the refusal to act in the question of the rights of the Kurds within Turkey, where the dialogue has been rejected in favor of invulnerability.
Today N ° 2000 02/28/2024