A press conference will take place today at 1pm, next to the Vigil for Ocalan opposite the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

The press conference follows on from Tuesday’s conference in the European Parliament entitled “Rights and Freedoms in Turkey: Law, Prisons, and the Kurdish Issue”, and will be addressed by attendees from the conference: MEPs, lawyers and Kurdish politicians.

The organizers of the press conference said: "The situation for political prisoners in Turkey only gets worse, with reports of severe isolation, deprivation of essential medical treatment, and multiple other cruelties, many of which are classified as torture. The Kurdish leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has been denied any contact with the world outside his prison for over two years, and isolation practices applied to him and to the other three prisoners on İmralı Island are becoming a model for other prisons. Meanwhile, President Erdoğan, in his victory speech following his re-election, made clear that he has no intention of abiding by the demand of the European Court of Human Rights that the former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) be released from prison immediately. In fact, although Selahattin Demirtaş is still under trial and not convicted, Erdoğan vowed never to release him. These are dangerous times for Kurds and for all dissidents in Turkey, and also for the European institutions that are charged with maintaining human rights and the rule of law."