The Asrin Law Office in Istanbul is presenting its annual report on the situation in the Imrali prison today. The report includes an assessment of the general situation in the prison in the Sea of Marmara, as well as a detailed overview of the serious and systematic human rights violations committed against its clients Abdullah Öcalan, Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Ateş and Hamili Yıldırım.

According to the Asrin Law Office, which has represented Öcalan since his deportation to Turkey in violation of international law in 1999, the report is presented at a press conference on the premises of the Association of Free Lawyers. The initiatives taken by the office in the past year on a legal and civil law level to enforce the rights of the Imrali prisoners will also be explained.

Titled “2021 Assessment Report On the Rights Violations and The Current Conditions in Imrali Island Prison”, the report highlighted the rejection of lawyers’ applications, the isolation regime and unlawful obstructions.

Remarking that the “prohibition of torture” was violated on Imrali, the report said, “Mr. Öcalan is being subjected to the severest torture conditions in 23 years.”

More details to follow.

BACKGROUND

For 23 years now, Abdullah Öcalan has been in almost absolute isolation on Imrali. The island is considered a lawless space and represents a system that implements a punitive regime beyond the limits of existing law. The last contact with the Kurdish leader was a brief telephone conversation with his brother Mehmet Öcalan last March. Since then, his legal counsel has submitted more than 150 visitation requests to the relevant prosecutor's office, as well as several urgent requests to the Ministry of Justice, the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention and the Department of Human Rights for an "immediate visitation permit", none of which have been answered. There have been no lawyer visits on Imrali since 7 August 2019 and no family visits since 3 March 2020. Equally affected by the isolation on the island are Öcalan's three fellow prisoners, who were transferred to the island prison in 2015 as part of the dialogue between the Kurdish leader and the Turkish state.

During the telephone call with his brother almost a year ago, Öcalan protested against the arbitrary legal treatment and demanded a visit from his lawyers. The conversation took place under public pressure and was interrupted after a few minutes for unknown reasons. In Turkey, prisoners have the right to regular telephone contact with their relatives. Öcalan has only been able to exercise this right twice in the 23 years of his imprisonment.