Lawyers apply again to visit Öcalan

Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan has been imprisoned in Imrali for 22 years under severe isolation.

Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers Rezan Sarıca, Faik Özgür Erol, Cengiz Yürekli and Raziye Öztürk have applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office to meet with their client in Imrali Island Prison.

On 14 March rumours spread on social media claiming that Öcalan had died in prison. Immediately protests were organised around the world demanding an urgent visit by the lawyers to Imrali.

On March 25th, Öcalan was able to talk with his brother Mehmet Öcalan. The short phone conversation happened about a year after a previous call, on 27 April 2020, and it is the first time since then that Öcalan had an actual contact with someone outside.

The phone conversation was held under the supervision of the Urfa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and was very short. The call was interrupted pretty soon. Likewise, the phone call by another prisoner on Imrali, Hamili Yıldırım, with his family was also abruptly interrupted. It was reported that the other two prisoners, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş, did not make the phone call they were offered to protest isolation.

All applications for visit have been so far rejected or gone unanswered.

The Imrali Delegation, which was able to hold talks with Öcalan within the framework of peace negotiations, has not been allowed to visit the prison island since April 2015. Since the last visit of the team of lawyers on August 7, 2019, the Turkish authorities have not responded to any of the continuous requests for visits.

The Turkish authorities use the "roadmap for negotiations" submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in 2009 as the justification for the ban on visits by Abdullah Öcalan's team of lawyers.