The Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe (TJK-E) released a written statement as rumors are spreading on social media in Turkey that Abdullah Öcalan has died in prison.

TJK-E said, "Leader Apo has been subject to aggravated isolation and torture for 22 years. The last lawyer meeting at Imralı prison was limited to Leader Öcalan on August 7 in 2019.  Leader Öcalan’s and other prisoners' last contact with the outside world was through a phone call, which was recognized for the first time on the occasion of the pandemic on April 27, 2020.”

“RUMOURS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED IMMEDIATELY!”

The statement continued:

"Imrali is not an ordinary prison; it is an isolation and torture system. The law is not valid on Imrali where arbitrary practices are executed in defiance of human rights and democracy. Rumours have been disseminated on social media about the situation of Leader Öcalan since March 14, 2021. Leader Öcalan's health and safety is an urgent issue for Kurdish women and the Kurdish people.

The fascist AKP-MHP regime has been denying lawyer and family meetings in Imrali prison for years. Therefore, there is no information about Leader Öcalan's health and safety. The silence of international institutions and organizations reveals their complicity. These institutions and organizations, especially the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), have no more legitimacy. We are once again calling on these institutions to do their duties.

These legal and inhumane practices must be stopped immediately. Families, especially the lawyers, should be contacted as soon as possible and the public should be informed. It is urgent to check the health, safety and prison conditions of Leader Öcalan and Mr. Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, and to provide information to the public.

As the Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe, we will be carrying out an uninterrupted struggle for the lifting of the aggravated isolation and for the freedom of our Leader. We will be in the streets every day against these immoral attacks of the AKP-MHP fascist regime by further developing our "Time of Freedom" campaign. On this basis, we call on all our people, especially women, to take action in the streets until a lawyer meeting with Leader Abdullah Öcalan is made and a statement is made that they are safe and healthy. The day is the day to grow the resistance!”