The Kurdish National Congress (KNK) Executive Council issued an urgent call on the Council of Europe, EU and UN for ad hoc mission to Imrali. 

In an interview on 8 July, Executive Council Member of the Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK) Mr. Sabri Ok said on the Kurdish TV Channel Sterk TV that threatening letters had recently been sent to Abdullah Öcalan anonymously via the Imrali prison administration.

The KNK said that "in addition to the rule of lawlessness in Imrali, these serious threats constitute a new level of psychological terror against Mr. Öcalan. This issue has therefore caused great concerns among us and the millions of Kurds around the world who support Abdullah Öcalan.

As Mr. Ok stated, the recent threats were conveyed through anonymous letters checked and passed on by both the Turkish state and the Imrali prison administration. According to Mr. Ok, the letters included messages such as: ”We will administer a poison that will lead to your demise. Even the insects that feed on your corpse will be poisoned and perish”. This happened at a time when Mr. Öcalan has had no means of communication with the outside world for about 28 months."

The KNK continued: "The Kurdish people’s leader and founder of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), Abdullah Öcalan has been held as a political prisoner for over 24 years on the Turkish prison Island Imrali, including many years of solitary confinement under the rule of the AKP regime. The most recent threats have to be taken very seriously since Mr. Öcalan was poisoned before on the island in March 2007. This was later proven by several international laboratories, including the ChemTox laboratory in Strasbourg, based on a hair sample of Mr. Öcalan. The test result showed that the level of poisonous chromium and strontium in Mr. Öcalan’s hair was much higher than normal."

The KNK added: "Especially in the last 28 months, Mr. Öcalan’s lawyers and family have not been able to visit him. Even telephone calls are permitted. The last sign of Mr. Öcalan was a short phone call with his brother on March 25, 2021. Although the lawyers have continuously applied to the relevant authorities in Turkey as well as to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in order to be allowed to see their client, they have not received any replies.

This and the above-mentioned threats to his life have raised great concerns about Mr. Öcalan’s life among us and the entire Kurdish people. The CPT has so far unfortunately refused to act and has not shared any information about the situation in the Imrali prison, although, according to the Council of Europe's criteria, it is the only organisation that can visit this prison at any time."

The KNK said: "In light of the seriousness of the recent threats to Mr. Öcalan’s life, we call on the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EU and the UN to organize an urgent ad hoc mission to visit Abdullah Öcalan. If this is not possible, we call on these institutions to put legal, political and diplomatic pressure on their member state, Turkey, to allow for an immediate visit by the lawyers or the family of Mr. Öcalan."