No news has been received from Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in İmralı Island Prison under heavy isolation conditions for 25 years, for more than 3 years. Abdullah Öcalan is held incommunicado, and his right to see his family and lawyers has been completely usurped. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which has the sole authority to visit İmralı, and the institutions and organisations that are obliged to protect and implement international law, deepen the isolation in İmralı with their attitude towards the conditions Abdullah Öcalan is in.

On the other hand, the anger of those demanding freedom for Abdullah Öcalan within the scope of the "Freedom for Öcalan, Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign, which was launched globally on 10 October 2023, towards the isolation is also growing. Juan Prosper, one of the lawyers of the Paris Bar Association, evaluated the legal dimension of the Imrali isolation and the CPT's approach towards this isolation to ANF.

‘ECtHR judgements are violated in Imralı'

"As lawyers, our main aim is to draw attention to the general situation of political prisoners and the inhuman and degrading treatment they are subjected to," said lawyer Juan Prosper, one of the participants in the conference on the İmralı isolation at the European Parliament held on 11 April.

Stating that the conditions in which Abdullah Öcalan is being held do not meet even the minimum standards of the European Convention on Human Rights, lawyer Prosper said: "But most importantly, we are faced with a situation where, despite the time that has passed, the CPT's recommendations for İmralı have still not been made public. Today we are in a situation where we do not have any information about Abdullah Öcalan's detention status. This is a clear violation of the requirements set out by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in its previous judgement on Öcalan."

'CPT'S report is important to find out what is happening in Imralı'

Underlining that it is of great importance for the CPT to release its latest İmralı report in the face of the current situation, lawyer Prosper said: "Today, we are in a situation where we need this report of the CPT and the transparency of this report in order for all civil society actors to be aware of what is happening in İmralı. In this sense, it is of great importance that this report is made public as soon as possible."

'We must continue to be an instrument of pressure'

"We must continue to put pressure on the Turkish authorities to respect the judgements of the ECtHR and to ensure that independent observers are able to inspect the conditions in İmralı. At the same time, as lawyers, we must continue to put pressure on the CPT to publish its report on the conditions of Abdullah Öcalan."