Thomas Schmidt, Co-Secretary General of the European Union of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), made an interview with ANF and demanded that the obstacles preventing the lawyers of Asrın Law Office from meeting with Öcalan be removed.

According to the information I have received, you have applied to the CPT about ban on meeting with Kurdish leader and prisoner Mr Abdullah Öcalan.

Yes, my organisation The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), together with the European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL) and Lawyers for Lawyers (a lawyers organisation based in The Netherlands) has sent a petition the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in which we ask the CPT on the Day of the Lawyers in Turkey, to organize a follow-up visit to İmralı Prison and in particular to examine the government’s refusal to permit lawyers to visit their clients who are under isolation in İmralı Prison.

As a lawyer have you ever requested to meet with Mr. Öcalan? 

Mr. Öcalan is not my client. Without a power of attorney I would not receive the permission to visit him. But even if he was my client I have no reason to believe that the Turkish authorities would give preferential treatment to my visit request.

According to the information available to me, Mr Öcalan's lawyers have filed countless visitation requests in recent years, which have not been granted.His right to receive his lawyers in prison and the right of his lawyers to practice their profession without hindrance were not respected.

At present the rights of Abdullah Öcalan, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım, and Veysi Aktaş, who are currently held in İmralı F-Type High Security Prison to see their lawyers is unlawfully being restricted.  Applications for lawyer visits have not been granted since 7 August 2019 for Abdullah Öcalan, Veysi Aktaş, Hamili Yıldırım, and Ömer Hayri Konar. They have not been allowed to see their lawyers even once since they were transferred to İmralı Island in 2015.

A special and discriminatory form of isolation has been applied in İmralı Prison since 15 February 1999. The ban on lawyer visits was continued for 8 years without any interruption from 27 July 2011 until 2 May 2019. In 2019, 5 lawyer visits took place. After the last lawyer visit on 7 August 2019, the continuous ban resumed.

The banning of lawyer visits to İmralı Prison openly violates the United Nations (UN) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules), updated in 2015, the CPT’s recommendations and the Execution Law of Turkey (Law no. 5275). States have the obligation to guarantee detainees and convicts’ exercise of their rights without any regard for their identity or the quality of their sentence. It is also a violation of the rights and privileges of lawyers, as specified in the United Nations Basic Principles on the role of lawyers. In particular this concerns basic principles 8 and 16. Basic Principle 8 demands that “imprisoned persons shall be provided with adequate opportunities, time and facilities to be visited by and to communicate and consult with a lawyer, without delay, interception or censorship and in full confidentiality”. Basic Principle 16 states governments must ensure that lawyers “are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance or improper interference.” The specific rights and privileges that lawyers enjoy in connection to their professional functions should not only be guaranteed in light of the rights of the lawyer, but also in protection of the rights of their clients.

Mr Öcalan and his fellow prisoners must therefore exhaust all legal possibilities to enforce their right to see their lawyers.

To what extent do you think the CPT has a credible, transparent and objective position?

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) is a specialised independent monitoring body of the Council of Europe. It consists of independent, impartial experts such as lawyers, medical doctors and specialists in prison or police matters. The CPT periodically visits each of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe at least every 4 years. In addition, unannounced visits are carried out if the CPT considers it necessary to monitor a particularly serious situation.

The CPT is fulfilling a valuable task by creating transparency about certain violations that fall under its jurisdiction and by reminding the respective government of its obligations. However, in the past, the Turkish authorities have failed to implement the CPT's recommendations. In doing so, the Turkish authorities not only violated the rights of Mr. Öcalan and his fellow prisoners. Turkey has thereby also failed to comply with the obligations imposed by the ratification of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and failed to show the due respect to the CPT and its recommendations.

Since 1999, the CPT has conducted 10 separate visits to İmralı Prison. This severe state of isolation in İmralı Prison was noted in the CPT’s Report on its visit to Turkey between 6-17 May 2019, which was published on 5 August 2020. While pointing out several violations, the report also stated the following with regard to lawyer and family visits:

“The CPT urges the Turkish authorities to take the necessary steps to ensure that all prisoners at İmralı Prison are effectively able, if they so wish, to receive visits from their relatives and lawyers. To this end, an end should be put to the practice of imposing a ban on family visits for ‘disciplinary’ reasons. Further, the Committee requests the Turkish authorities to provide – on a monthly basis – an account of the visits which all prisoners held at İmralı Prison have received from their family members and lawyers” (para. 51).

The situation indicated in the CPT’s report continues to this day, in an aggravated manner. While it had been expected that improvements would be made in İmralı Prison in line with the recommendations outlined in the CPT’s report, the prisoners’ lawyers report that new disciplinary penalties and bans – the latter were issued by the Execution Judgeship – have been imposed on the prisoners.

As the legal organizations which has signed this petition, ELDH request the CPT to follow up on its report of 5 August 2020, ELDH urges the CPT to recommend that the necessary action is taken by the authorities; and that urgent action is taken for the lifting of the ban on lawyer visits, which is part of the isolation imposed on prisoners in İmralı Prison; and, in view of the aggravation of the conditions since the CPT’s last visit more than two years ago, to visit İmralı Prison and prepare a report on this visit.