For over 21 months, no news has been received from Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and his fellow prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım, who have been held in aggravated isolation for 24 months in the F Type High Security Prison on Imrali Island.

The Asrın Law Office, which represents Öcalan and other prisoners on Imrali, has seen its requests to visit Imrali repeatedly rejected on the grounds of “disciplinary punishments” and “visitation bans”.

The Imrali Disciplinary Board Presidency issued a three-month family visit ban on Öcalan and his fellow prisoners in May. After this ban expired on 15 September, lawyers from Asrın Law Office submitted another application to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on 16 September, demanding that a visit by families be enabled. The application went unanswered, as was another application submitted to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and Imrali Penal Institution Directorate on 23 September.

Lawyers then turned to the Bursa Execution Judge, expressing their rejection of any disciplinary action and demanding to be handed in the sample decisions in the file. This application on 5 October was also left unanswered, citing a three-month disciplinary punishment issued by the Imrali Disciplinary Board Presidency on 9 September, which was allegedly finalized on 28 September. The lawyers’ objection to the decision in question went ignored by the authorities.

With the expiration of 9 September’s disciplinary action on 9 December, lawyers submitted three more applications on 15-23 December 2022 and 3 January 2023 to the prison administration and the prosecutor’s office. These applications also remained inconclusive.

According to the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), the Bursa Execution Judge’s Office has notified lawyers of a new three-month ban on family visits for Abdullah Öcalan and his fellow prisoners on 4 January. The action was described as a “disciplinary punishment”, the motives and details of which, however, were not mentioned.

On 10 January, lawyers raised an objection to the decision and saw it rejected by Bursa Heavy Penal Court on the very same day.

Lawyers from Asrın Law Office announced that they would apply to the Constitutional Court against the ban in question.