Turkish authorities have prevented jailed Kurdish chief Abdullah Ocalan from seeing his legal professionals and members of the family for the previous two years on the grounds of consecutive “disciplinary punishments.” Ocalan, who since 1999 has been serving a life sentence on the Imrali jail island off the coast of Istanbul, was most not too long ago barred from exterior contact reportedly as a result of he chatted together with his fellow inmates throughout the bodily train interval. In keeping with Kurdish politicians, the ban displays Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drift away from the democratic course of, which aimed to unravel Turkey’s decadeslong Kurdish downside through peaceable means.
Ocalan’s isolation has come into public focus following the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers assembly on Dec. 2, throughout which the European human rights watchdog determined to initiate infringement proceedings towards Turkey over the detention for over 4 years of Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala. In the course of the assembly, the European physique additionally requested Ankara for info on what steps were taken to place into place a mechanism to evaluate life sentences in Turkey. In 2014, the European Courtroom of Human Rights dominated that sentences of life imprisonment with no likelihood for parole shouldn’t be changed into a torture mechanism, calling on Ankara to place into place a evaluate mechanism for convicts serving lifelong sentences.
“Turkey ought to instantly do one thing on this challenge,” Ibrahim Bilmez, certainly one of Ocalan’s legal professionals, instructed Al-Monitor, mentioning the January 2022 deadline set by the Council of Europe for Turkey to reply the knowledge request.
Whereas Ocalan’s launch from jail seems out of query for now, his therapy there continues to attract criticism and his members of the family fear about his properly being.
The Imrali jail island the place Ocalan is serving his sentence on terror and treason fees hosted a number of figures — from pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Get together (HDP) lawmakers to high-level bureaucrats — till 2014 when peace talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Employees Get together (PKK) collapsed.
Ocalan’s legal professionals had been granted entry to him for the primary time in a number of years in 2019 following a mass hunger strike involving hundreds of individuals, from HDP officers to inmates in Turkish prisons. Ocalan was allowed to maintain 5 separate conferences together with his legal professionals and a gathering together with his brother. In a press release he relayed by his legal professionals, Ocalan known as on the strikers to not take their actions to some extent that threatened their well being or resulted in dying.
But, following these conferences, isolation resumed and Ocalan was as soon as once more banned from assembly together with his legal professionals, kin and fellow inmates on the jail island. The one exception to the ban was a three-minute cellphone name he made on March 3, 2020.
Since then, nobody has spoken to or met with Ocalan. Bilmez mentioned their newest request to go to him final week was declined by the Justice Ministry on the grounds of a “disciplinary punishment” he acquired in October.
“In keeping with this punishment, he was banned from each lawyer and household visits. We’ve got been continually dealing with disciplinary punishments over the previous two years,” Bilmez mentioned.
Ocalan’s fellow convicts on the jail island face related therapy. Omer Hayri Konar, who’s serving a life sentence, is certainly one of them. His brother, Emin, mentioned he had final seen Omer two years in the past.
“Once we submitted a [visit] request with legal professionals, we coincidentally discovered that they’d acquired disciplinary punishment,” Emin mentioned, referring to his brother and three different inmates together with Ocalan. In keeping with Emin, the explanation for the punishment was inmates chatting with one another throughout bodily train.
Many imagine the reasoning behind the bans on visits is much from convincing.
“It appears unrealistic that these 4 individuals held in Imrali are continually receiving disciplinary punishments,” Bilmez mentioned.
In the meantime, some worldwide rights teams proceed to name on Ankara to enhance Ocalan’s therapy. Final 12 months, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) mentioned the restrictions on Ocalan and different convicts’ conferences with their legal professionals and members of the family had been “unacceptable.” In a report published after a CPT delegation’s go to to the jail in 2019, the CPT known as on Ankara to ease the solitary confinement measures positioned on Ocalan and grant him extra exterior contact.
Emin Konar and Omer Ocalan, the Kurdish chief’s nephew and an HDP lawmaker, held a joint press convention at parliament in Ankara final week, calling on the Justice Ministry to elevate the ban on visits, however to no avail.
In keeping with Omer Ocalan, the federal government has suspended all legal guidelines concerning prisoners’ rights on the Imrali jail island and this lawlessness was prolonged to the skin of jail, turning into a typical authorities apply towards Kurdish motion.
Bilmez is looking on all civic teams to talk up towards the scenario. He and Ocalan’s different legal professionals final week submitted a request to the Bar Affiliation in Diyarbakir, the biggest metropolis within the Kurdish-majority southeast, to take motion to finish Ocalan’s isolation.
Diyarbakir Bar Affiliation chair Nahit Eren mentioned inmates’ rights to satisfy their members of the family and legal professionals are assured beneath worldwide regulation. Stating kin’ issues in regards to the inmates’ properly being, Eren mentioned the Justice Ministry wants to instantly grant entry to Imrali. He mentioned an official request by the Bar Affiliation for entry has gone unanswered.
Unheeded calls by quite a few worldwide and native our bodies and civic teams point out that the scenario is an final result of political preferences reasonably than authorized technicalities.
Tayip Temel, HDP deputy co-chair, concurs. “The foremost cause for the isolation is Erdogan’s drift away from the democratic settlement perspective,” he instructed Al-Monitor. He mentioned that at any time when the federal government drifts away from democratic means to settle the Kurdish downside, Ocalan’s isolation grows.
