Since 25 June 2012, groups from all over Europe have been taking turns to hold a weekly vigil in front of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in Strasbourg for the physical freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. There has been no contact with Abdullah Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners, Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş on Imrali Prison Island in the Turkish Sea of Marmara since March 2021.

A group of activists from Britain took over the vigil on its 598th week today. The group includes Zerdeşt Hewrami, Baran Serhat, İsmet Aris and Hereş Rouf.

The group said in a statement that they joined the vigil to demand freedom for Abdullah Öcalan who has been subjected to isolation for 25 years and has not been heard from for nearly 3 years.

Zerdeşt Hewrami saluted the international campaign "Freedom for Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question" which was launched with press conferences in over a hundred places all around the world on 10 October. The campaign demands immediate access for the legal team and family members to PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held hostage on the Turkish prison island of Imrali since 1999, and finally his release under conditions that allow him to play a role in finding a political solution to the Kurdish question. The campaign brings together academics, journalists, NGOs, political parties, parliamentarians, activists, philosophers, Nobel laureates, women's organisations and representatives of indigenous peoples from all continents.

Hewrami also saluted the political prisoners in Turkey and North Kurdistan who went on hunger strike in solidarity with the international campaign. “We see Leader Öcalan’s freedom as the freedom of humanity. We do not accept the isolation imposed on him,” the activist said.