The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan applied to the Ministry of Justice for a meeting with Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been kept under absolute isolation in İmralı F Type High Security Closed Prison and has not been heard from for 41 months.

In his application petition, MP Öcalan said: “As his family, we do not receive any news from Mr Abdullah Öcalan, who is held in İmralı High Security Closed Penal Institution, and we are concerned about his state of health. As a nephew of his, I would like to visit Mr Abdullah Öcalan on 16.08.2024. I request that the necessary action be taken to ensure the meeting.”

Background

Abdullah Öcalan, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, who are kept under severe isolation conditions in Imralı F Type High Security Prison, have not been heard from for 41 months.

The right to meet with the families of Abdullah Öcalan and fellow prisoners in Imralı is being denied by the authorities, citing "disciplinary penalties". The reasons and file numbers of these disciplinary penalties are not shared with their lawyers despite all applications and objections.

According to Asrın Law Office, "From 27 July 2011 to date, only 5 lawyer visits were allowed between May and August 2019. The last of these five meetings was on 7 August 2019. Only 5 family visits have been granted since 2014. The last face-to-face meeting was with Öcalan's brother was on 3 March 2020. Öcalan has only been able to make two phone calls since the first day (on 27 April 2020 and 25 March 2021). The last phone call on 25 March 2021 was interrupted after a very short time and there has been no news from him since that day."