The Freedom for Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan Initiative is organizing a rally in Strasbourg on Saturday, 2 October, demanding freedom for Öcalan.

In a written statement about the rally, the Initiative said: "The isolation against Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan has now reached a dangerous level by exceeding torture," and stressed that they will not remain silent and indifferent to this situation.

The Council of Europe is not fulfilling its duties

Underlining that the Council of Europe did not fulfil its duties due to political reasons, the Initiative said: "The Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) declared that the conditions in Imrali are unacceptable. They stated in the reports they published that there is a problem and that it needs to be changed. Despite this, nothing has changed in the Imrali isolation system."

The Initiative underlined that there has been no news from Imrali since Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan had a 4-5 minutes’ phone call with his brother on 25 March and added: "Abdullah Öcalan's connections with the outside world have been completely cut off since 25 March 2021.”

The Initiative called for participation in the mass rally to be held at the weekend.

The people and institutions that carry out campaigns and work in many countries for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan will also attend the rally.

Simon Dubbins, UNITE International and Research Director and Founder of the Freedom for Öcalan Campaign, Prof. Laura Corradi, Co-Chair of the People's Friendship Movement Against Racism (MRAP), Rénee Le Mignot, President of the International Union for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms (AIDL) Dr. Mohamed Al Shami and Solidaires Union Representative from France are also among the speakers of the rally.