Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers Rezan Sarıca, Serbay Köklü and Cengiz Çiçek submitted an appeal to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to meet with their client who is held in aggravated isolation by the Turkish state in İmralı Island High Security Prison.

Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office rejected the appeal citing restrictions introduced on prisoners pursuant to the Law on the Execution of Penalties and Security Measures No. 5275.

The last time Öcalan’s lawyers visited him was on 27 July 2011. Since then, their appeal to visit the Kurdish leader has been rejected on grounds of “weather conditions”, “malfunctioning coaster”, “coaster reparations”, or “state of emergency”.

Abdullah Öcalan has only met with his brother Mehmet Öcalan in 2016 since 2015, as Kurdish politicians went on massive hunger strike demanding immediate access to the Kurdish leader. Since this meeting on September 11, 2016, there has been no news about him or the three other prisoners in the Imrali Island Prison with him, Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım.