Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan hasn’t been permitted to meet with his lawyers or his family for years. The appeals are rejected with the same excuses every time, but in the latest appeal, a new excuse entered the stage.

Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan ‘s brother Mehmet Öcalan, sister Fatma Öcalan and executor Mazlum Dinc submitted their 94th appeal to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office through their lawyers to visit Imrali.

The prosecutor’s office cited a disciplinary punishment issued to Öcalan as the reason for the rejection. Before this appeal, the usual reason for the rejections was the “Restrictions on convicted persons” in the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures Act No.5275.

The prosecutor’s office said they won’t permit the visit due to the disciplinary punishment Öcalan was issued on September 14, 2018 by the Imrali High Security Prison Type F Directorate’s Disciplinary Board. Neither the family nor the lawyers were informed on what the punishment was for.

Appeals submitted by family members of other prisoners in the Imrali island, Hamili Yildirim’s brother Polat Yildirim, Omer Hayri Konar’s brother Ali Konar and Veysel Aktas’s sister Sabiha Aslan, were also rejected with the same reason.

The prosecutor’s office had rejected the families’ appeals 93 times because “the coaster doesn’t work”, “the ship is being repaired”, “bad weather”, “the State of Emergency” and “Restrictions on convicted persons as per the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures Act No.5275”.

Öcalan’s lawyers haven’t been permitted to meet with their client since July 27, 2011. The lawyers have submitted a total of 786 appeals to date, all of which were rejected on arbitrary excuses like “bad weather”, “broken coaster”, “coaster repairs” and “the State of Emergency”.