NEWS CENTER - Families of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş held in İmralı Prison applied to the prosecutor's office and the prison directorate for a visit.

 

Mehmet Öcalan, brother of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan who has no news from for 20 months and his legal guardian Mazlum Dinç, and other prisoners in İmralı, Ömer Hayri Konar's brother Ali Konar, Hamili Yıldırım's brother Polat Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş's sister Melihe Çetin applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Monday, requesting a visit.

 

The families also applied to the Imrali F Type High Security Closed Penal Institution Directorate for a meeting through the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

 

TWO NEW DISCIPLINARY PUNISHMENTS

 

The lawyers applied for an "urgent meeting" with the Bursa Penal Execution Judge on November 22, as no positive or negative response was given to their twice-weekly applications to meet with their client Öcalan. Responding to the application, the judgeship rejected the application, stating that there were two new disciplinary punishments on Öcalan banning the family visits. As an obstacle to the meeting, the judgeship cited the decision that a 6-month ban on meeting Öcalan on October 12 and a 3-month ban on family visits on 18 August was imposed. However, the lawyers were not informed about the decisions cited as reasons for the ban.

 

PHONE CALL WAS INTERRUPTED

 

Öcalan, who has been held under severe isolation conditions in İmralı High Security F-Type Closed Prison for 22 years, made a phone call yesterday with his brother Mehmet Öcalan after the last phone call on April 27, 2020. However, Mehmet Öcalan had announced that the phone call was interrupted.

 

DISCIPLINARY PUNISHMENT BEFORE CPT VISIT

 

The fact that a new disciplinary punishment was handed over to Öcalan right before the visit of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to İmralı Prison. The CPT announced on October 3 that it visited Turkey between 20-29 September. In the statement of the CPT, it was stated that the İmralı Prison, where PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and detainees Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım are held, were also visited. However, an information note on the details of the visit was not shared.

 

LATEST VISIT IN IMRALI

 

Rezan Sarıca and Newroz Uysal last met their clients on May 2-22, June 12-18 and August 7, 2019, after 8 years. Öcalan was allowed to use his right to a phonecall for the first time in 23 years, on April 27, 2020.