Hundreds of lawyers from 22 countries have submitted requests to the Turkish Ministry of Justice to visit Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan and his fellow prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş in Imrali.

The lawyers will hold a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, 14 September, to explain the move. The lawyers want to break through the total isolation against the prisoners on Imrali, which goes against both international and national law.

Several representatives of legal organizations will attend the press conference at the European Press Club in Brussels, Rue Froissart 95, 1000 Brussels, to announce their request to visit the Turkish Ministry of Justice and their demands. Among others, Georges Henri Beauthier from the Paris and Brussels Bar Associations, Hélène Debaty from the Syndicat des Avocats pour la Démocratie-le SAD, Selma Benkhelifa from the Progress Lawyers Network and Thomas Schmidt, Secretary General of the EJDM (European Association of Lawyers for democracy and human rights in the world).

Most recently, on 10 June 2022, 775 lawyers from Turkey and Northern Kurdistan applied for a visit to Imrali. Their requests were completely ignored by both the General Prosecutor's Office and the Justice Department.