Lawyers have taken the case to the Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi - AYM) after the Bursa Executive Court No.1 issued a ban for “visitation, written communication, right to a phone call and lawyers visits” for Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and other Imrali prisoners Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş by the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW VIOLATED”

According to the Mesopotamia Agency (MA), the appeal by Öcalan’s lawyers states that all appeals by Öcalan’s lawyers have been rejected by the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for the last 6 years and 10 months, while appeals by lawyers of the other prisoners had a similar fate since they were transferred to the Imrali Prison 3 years 2 months ago.

The appeal says the ban violates the Ban on Torture and Mistreatment, the Right to A Just Trial, the Right to Privacy and Family Life, and the Ban Against Discrimination in the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and adds: “With this practice, the Derogation in Time of Emergency (Art.15), the ban against abuse of restriction of fundamental rights and freedoms wider than foreseen in the Convention (Article 17, ECHR) and Limitation on Use of Restrictions on Rights (ECHR Art.18, The Constitution Art.15) have been violated.”

“NO EVIDENCE”

The appeal states that the verdict and practice in question are “not lawfully foreseeable in several aspects”: “There is no evidence, no findings, documents or reports that go against the law about the ban on family visits. And, for arrestees, there is no regulation in the law on lawyer visits or the laws cited above to ban family visits. Despite these facts, family visits having been banned with the verdict openly goes against the law and removes the ‘foreseeability’ criteria.”

Lawyers stressed that Constitutional rules have been violated and added that the discipline write-ups cited in the demand by the prosecution and the verdict by the court were all issued between 2005 and 2009.

“ECHR AND CPT STANDARDS SHOULD BE HEEDED”

The appeal points out that lawyers’ visits have been unlawfully banned and adds that the reasons cited are also outside the law.

The appeal also states that the unlawfullness have increased several times over and that ECHR verdicts and CPT standards on the matter, as well as reports on Turkey, should be heeded.

The appeal stressed that, “For all the reasons cited above, it has become a necessity to demand that it be stated that the strict conditions of isolation the applicants have been subjected to with the aforementioned verdict constitute a violation of the ban on torture and mistreatment.”