In its four-month report on Imrali, Asrın Law Office said that 52 applications for family and lawyer visits to Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners had been ignored. The lawyers urged the CPT to visit Imrali "urgently".
The four-month report on Imrali by Asrın Law Office, published by Mezopotamya Agency, highlights the human rights violations faced by Abdullah Öcalan and the other prisoners in Imrali, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım, and Veysi Aktaş.
The four-month report covers December 2024, January, February, and March 2025.
A new application was submitted to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) together with the report.
The application noted that 35 lawyer visit requests and 17 family and guardian visit requests had been submitted to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Imrali F-Type High-Security Closed Prison Directorate over the past four months. It was recorded that all 52 applications had been ignored.
The application recalled that Öcalan had only been allowed to meet with his lawyers five times in the last 14 years, with the last meeting occurring on 7 August 2019.
The report also noted that only six family visits had taken place since 2014. Following 44 months of absolute incommunicado isolation, Öcalan was allowed to meet with his nephew, Ömer Öcalan, a MP for the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), on October 23, 2024. However, no further family visits have taken place since then.
The report pointed out that the situation of other prisoners in Imrali was similar, highlighting the repeated disciplinary punishments imposed on them.
The report said: "We do not consider the systematically imposed disciplinary punishments to be legal or legitimate. Moreover, even in times when these disciplinary measures were not in effect, the authorities continued to prevent family visits without any legal justification. This is a clear indication of an arbitrary and unlawful system."
The report also referenced Öcalan’s historic call for “Peace and a Democratic Society”, the result of his meetings with the Imrali Delegation in December, January, and February, and emphasized the international attention this call had received.
The report said: "As we have mentioned in previous reports, both the conditions under which Mr. Öcalan is held and his statements as a significant political figure are being closely followed at both national and international levels."
The report also underlined Öcalan’s right to freedom, adding: "The most critical step in realizing the path to peace and democracy that Mr. Öcalan has called for is ensuring all his rights guaranteed by the constitution and international treaties, particularly his right to health and freedom. We urge the Committee to take the necessary steps in this regard."
The application referenced the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) “Öcalan 2” ruling and the violation of the “Right to Hope”, adding that Turkey had failed to comply with these rulings and that the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which is responsible for overseeing ECtHR rulings, had not conducted an effective review.
The application to the CPT undelined that Öcalan has been imprisoned for over 26 years and that his release is a "legal necessity."
Requests
The report recalled that CPT last visited Imrali in 2022 but had not published its report on the visit. The application included the following requests:
-Given that the conditions in Imrali have remained uncertain and have worsened since the last visit on September 22, 2022, and considering the significant changes over the past 2.5 years, the CPT should conduct an urgent ad-hoc visit to Imrali Prison.
-The CPT should take all necessary steps to ensure that the current detention conditions of the applicants are made humane and that their rights to communication with the outside world, including lawyer and family visits, are upheld. The systematic imposition of disciplinary punishments and lawyer bans must end.
-Measures should be taken to eliminate conditions of torture, inhuman treatment, and degrading treatment. In this regard, procedures outlined in Article 10/2 of the Convention should be initiated and announced. If lawyer and family visits cannot take place in the shortest possible time, the findings from the 22 September 2022 visit, as well as general observations on the extraordinary isolation regime in İmralı, should be shared with the public. The 22 September 2022 visit report should also be published as part of the procedure.
