İZMİR - Defining the İmralı isolation as "the black hole of the legal system", ÖHD lawyer Abdulmecit Yıldırım said: "The addressee of this business is the Ministry of Justice. We will continue our struggle until we get results."

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is being held in İmralı Type F High Security Closed Prison, has not been allowed to meet with his lawyers and family since March 25, 2021. The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), which took action against the aggravated isolation, applied to bar associations in many cities and demanded that Öcalan and Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım, who were held in İmralı, be contacted with their lawyers. ÖHD lawyer Abdulmecit Yıldırım, who applied with 36 colleagues in İzmir, spoke about the isolation and his demands against it.

 

THE RIGHTS OF ABDULLAH ÖCALAN

 

Stating that Öcalan, whom millions of people say "is my will", is wanted to be isolated and cut off his relations with the public, attorney Yıldırım said: “When the government wants to harden its policy, it aggravates the isolation. It bypasses the congestion by allowing conversations where it gets stuck. We are living in times when the death toll has stopped in the country, prosperity has increased, and the political climate has been more liberal. Öcalan is legally 'convicted' and convicts have rights established by law. Attorney meetings are one of these rights. Attorney and the family have the right to visit the prison, talk on the phone and write letters. The prisoner and convict are both convicted and need to enjoy these rights; however, this is not realized. These are the rights that the Republic of Turkey recognizes in its own laws. It is not possible as a lawyer to say that the isolation has been lifted with a meeting held by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). While none of these are being done. There is a CPT meeting held and the content of these meetings is not disclosed unless the party country allows it. We do not have information about the content of the meeting. Did the meeting take place? We do not know it either."

 

THE BLACK HOLE OF THE COUNTRY: IMRALI

 

Stating that they describe Imrali Prison as "the black hole of the Turkish legal system", Yıldırım said: "There are prisons in which unlawful acts are experienced in many countries. Unfortunately, since these unlawful acts were committed against Mr. Abdullah Öcalan, many parts of the country, legal organizations, lawyers and the public ignore it. İmralı Island is in the legal system of this country's prison. The same law applied to other prisons should be applied in Imrali Prison."