6-month phone calls ban for Abdullah Öcalan

Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan was prohibited telephone calls for 6 months after being prohibited to see his lawyers for 6 months.

Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan and Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş were prohibited telephone calls for 6 months. The decision was taken on September 7 by the Directorate of Imrali F-Type Closed Penal Institution Administration and Observation Board.

The Kurdish people's leader was able to exercise his right to a phone conversation only once, on April 27. He has been held hostage in Imrali since 15 February 1999. Other prisoners in Imrali were able to make phone calls with their families on the same date for the first time after 2015.

On 23 September a prohibition of lawyers visits was also imposed to Abdullah Öcalan and Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım, on the grounds of the solitary sentences given to Öcalan between 2005 and 2009 and the 156-page "Road Map" presented to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).