The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Ill-Treatment (CPT) visited some prisons and detention centres in Turkey between 7-11 April. However, it did not visit İmralı F-Type High Security Closed Prison where Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan is held under isolation.

 

Commenting on the CPT's failure to visit İmralı Prison and the isolation, Ekin Yeter, Co-chair of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), reminded that Abdullah Öcalan's lawyer and family visits have been prevented for many years on various grounds. Ekin Yeter pointed out that basic rights and freedoms have been suspended in İmralı and that the bans on lawyer and family visits are kept secret. Noting that lawyers are also prevented from practising their profession, Ekin Yeter said that İmralı is "a place ruled by an extraordinary regime". 

 

Ekin Yeter stated that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), in its violation decision on Abdullah Öcalan's "right to hope" in 2014, stated that isolation practices are a violation of the prohibition of torture and recommended that the violation be eliminated. Ekin Yeter stated that despite the verdict, the isolation conditions have not been eliminated and have been further aggravated, and added: "In its report dated 5 August 2020, CPT defined this situation as 'absolute incommunicado' and stated that this is against the law and international standards. It also found that the disciplinary penalties used as justification for preventing family visits were not credible.

 

'PREVENTED ON POLITICAL GROUNDS'

 

Stating that the talks in İmralı are being prevented for political reasons, Ekin Yeter said, "We can see this from the fact that delegation visits can be made depending on the course of the process. The 'incommunicado' state, which has no legality, cannot be legitimised with approaches that depend on the political process."

 

Ekin Yeter pointed that Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş held in İmralı were subjected to similar rights violations and reminded that they sent a letter to the CPT on 12 January 2024 regarding the violations. Ekin Yeter stressed: "The CPT last visited İmralı Prison in 2022, but the report on this visit was not shared with the public. It visited Turkey again between 7-11 April, but we learned that it did not include İmralı Prison in its programme despite the isolation. We think that not visiting İmralı Island Prison, where isolation continues intensely, is not in accordance with the basic working principles of international mechanisms, universal legal values and public conscience. We recognise this attitude as a political attitude. We will continue the struggle against the isolation regime to change this attitude."

 

MA / Müjdat Can