According to the Mesopotamia Agency (MA), the Bursa Executive Court No.1 has issued a new verdict for Öcalan and the other prisoners in Imrali Hamili Yildirim, Omer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktas on the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s demand.

The verdict dated September 6, 2018 bans the lawyers from meeting with their clients for 6 months.

The Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed to the Bursa Executive Court No.1 and demanded the ban, citing the 11 separate counts of solitary confinement punishments between 2005 and 2009 and the disciplinary council decision regarding a 156-page letter written in 2009.

The Prosecutor’s Office cited another reason as: “[...] the convicts who are members of a terrorist organization have had their visits with their lawyers leaked to the press in the past. It has been discussed among the public at the time that the convict Abdullah Öcalan continued to run his organization through orders given in these meetings. Allegations that lawyers have facilitated communication between the convicts and the terrorist organization or other criminal organizations and that the orders convict Abdullah Öcalan gave in visits with his lawyers constitute crimes [...]”

Turkish judiciary claimed that the meetings with lawyers constitute orders for the PKK and added that as “it is understood that the convict may again issue orders through the other convicts in the same facility,” Öcalan and other convicts should be barred from meeting with their lawyers for 6 months.

The Bursa Executive Court No.1 has accepted this demand and the appeal submitted by the lawyers against the verdict has been rejected.

HOW WERE 10 YEAR OLD MEETINGS USED AS AN EXCUSE?

It wasn’t explained why the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Court based the verdict on meetings held between 2005 and 2009 alone and didn’t mention the period between 2009 and 2015 when talks with the state were held.

NO MEETINGS SINCE 2011

The lawyers’ appeals to visit Öcalan have been rejected with arbitrary excuses like “bad weather”, “broken coaster”, “coaster repairs” or “the State of Emergency” to date. Öcalan hasn’t been able to meet with his lawyers since July 27, 2011.

DISCIPLINARY PUNISHMENT

The most recent appeal was submitted on September 21 by Öcalan’s brother Mehmet Öcalan, sister Fatma Öcalan and tutelar Mazlum Dinç through lawyers to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. This was the 94th such appeal, and it was also rejected as expected. But the reason given changed this time around.

The Prosecutor’s Office stated that they won’t allow the visit because Öcalan was issued a disciplinary punishment on September 14, 2018 by the Imrali High Security Prison Type F Directorate Disciplinary Council. Neither the family nor the lawyers were informed on the details of the punishment. Appeals submitted by the families of the other prisoners in Imrali, Hamili Yildirim’s brother Polat Yildirim, Omer Hayri Konar’s brother Ali Konar and Veysel Aktas’s sister Sabiha Aslan were also rejected on the same grounds.