Asrin Law Office made a new application to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) for their client PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in absolute isolation in İmralı Type F High Security Prison and has not been heard from for 41 months. The application includes developments regarding Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, covering May-June-July 2024.        

 

36 APPLICATIONS LEFT UNANSWERED

 

It was stated in the application that a total of 36 applications were made between May 1 and July 30, including 24 lawyer and 12 family visit applications, but all of the applications were left unanswered. The report stated that no letter was delivered to the lawyers during this period, the fate of 4 letters sent to İmralı was unknown, and there were no developments regarding the right to phone calls.

 

NEW DISCIPLINARY PENALTY

 

It is stated that family and lawyer visit applications have been prevented on the grounds of at least 23 “disciplinary penalties” since September 14, 2018. The report, which reminded that a new 3-month “disciplinary punishment” was imposed on July 4 before the expiration of the last “disciplinary punishment” dated April 12, 2024, drew attention to the fact that the process in question was carried out secretly from lawyers and finalized in violation of the law. It was underlined in the application that the right to defense of the applicants was also prevented, and it was also stated that Bursa 2nd Execution Judgeship issued a new ban on lawyer visitation on May 3, 2024 and the ban became final on May 14 in violation of the law.  

 

EARTHQUAKE RISK AND ACTION IN PRISONS 

 

In the application, it was stated that 3 different earthquakes occurred in the Marmara Sea within the 3 months in question, but public concerns about İmralı increased due to the bans on lawyer and family visits and unanswered applications.  It is also stated in the application that the rotating hunger strikes and boycott actions started in prisons on November 27, 2023 with the demand for “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, Democratic Solution to the Kurdish Issue” were ended on July 4, 2024 due to the lack of response, warning that this situation may cause irreparable damages and steted that, it is important that all necessary responsibilities are fulfilled without delay in order to prevent such severe consequences.

 

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES

 

The application also includes the initiatives taken by national and international organizations in the last 3 months against the continued absence of news from İmralı. These initiatives include the written applications made by the Istanbul, Amed (Diyarbakır), Ankara, Izmir, Wan, Mersin, Semsûr (Adıyaman) and Riha (Urfa) bar associations to their respective bar associations, the letter sent by the Paris Bar Association to the Ministry of Justice on July 4 regarding İmralı, the conference organized by the Movement for Inter-People Friendship Against Racism (MRAP) as part of the 80th Human Rights Sessions of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, more than 20 thousand letters sent to the committee by women in different countries of Europe, reports prepared by 4 different civil society organizations in Turkey against the absolute isolation of İmralı were presented in written and oral form at the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) sessions, and 69 Nobel Prize winners sent letters to the Presidency, ECHR, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, UN Human Rights Committee and the committee (CPT) for the release of Abdullah Öcalan. 

 

THE UN'S RESOLUTION ON ISOLATION WAS REMINDED

 

The application also referred to the meetings held on July 16-17-18 as part of the 80th Session of the UN CAT, which examined Turkey's 5th Periodic Report. In the application, it was pointed out that the Turkish delegation gave evasive answers to the questions on İmralı and that this situation was confirmed by the committee's observation and recommendation report on Turkey prepared after the meeting. 

 

AZERBAIJAN DECISION

 

In the application, which also included the CPT's duties of detection and prevention, the CPT made a statement on July 3 about Azerbaijan, which did not end the violations and did not comply with the recommendations in the reports prepared by the CPT after the visits, and said: “There has not been a single improvement in the conditions of İmralı Prison until date, and the applicants’ contact and communication with the outside world has been restricted on a terrifying scale since 2011. The findings and recommendations in 5 of the CPT’s reports since 2010 have not been implemented. The report on the 2019 visit could only be published after the conditions were outdated, and even immediately after the report was released, the Turkish authorities decided to systematically restrict the applicants’ rights to see their families and lawyers and communicate via telephone in September 2020. The report on the 2022 visit has not been disclosed after it was sent to the State party. There has been no sign of life from Mr Öcalan and the other applicants for more than 40 months, and all four have been cut off from all contact with the outside world. We consider that your CPT’s hesitation to follow the procedure set out in Article 10/2 of your Convention and its refusal to disclose the 2022 report, as in the case of Azerbaijan, has contributed to further perpetuating the regime of systematic torture in İmralı. Precisely as the CPT found in the case of the Government of Azerbaijan, the Government of Türkiye is violating the Convention by systematically subjecting the applicants to torture.” 

 

The application called on the CPT to abandon its usual procedures in the face of the extraordinary conditions in İmralı, and to adopt relevant procedures to eliminate the conditions of ill-treatment and the “incommunicado” situation.

 

REQUESTS IN THE APPLICATION

 

The lawyers made the following demands in the continuation of the application: 

 

 

“*To urgently conduct an ad-hoc visit to İmralı Prison considering the absolute and growing uncertainty  regarding the situation in İmralı since 22 September 2022 and the new level conditions in the prisons have reached over the course of the past two years;

 

*To take all necessary steps to ensure that the current conditions of detention are brought in line with human dignity, that the applicants are able to exercise all communication rights that ensure and protect their links with the outside world, in particular lawyer and family visits, and that the systematic and illegal restriction of these rights is put an end to;

 

*To urgently adopt and execute as well as publicly announce compulsive measures and the procedures under Article 10/2 of the Convention to eliminate the conditions of torture, inhuman, and ill-treatment and end the state of incommunicado which the applicants are currently held in for 41 months, to share with the public its general observations since the past about the extraordinary isolation regime in İmralı, particularly the observations made during the visit on 22 September 2022, especially if lawyer and family visits do not take place as soon as possible, and to add the report on the visit of 22 September 2022 to the statement within the scope of the procedure.”

 

MA / İbrahim Irmak