NEWS CENTER – Rezan Sarıca, Raziye Öztürk, Faik Özgür Erol and Emran Emekçi, lawyers of the Asrın Law Office, applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Directorate of Imrali Penitentiary Institution to meet with their clients, Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Lawyers are requesting to meet with the Kurdish People’s Leader twice a week. However, applications for interviews are systematically left unanswered. In some cases, months later, lawyers are presented as justification for disciplinary action against the Kurdish People’s Leader.
Finally, it was learned that after the ban on meeting Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan on 13 April ended on 18 October, this ban was automatically extended for another six months.
Concerns over the situation of the Kurdish People’s Leader increased after the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Turkey on 20-29 September. In a statement on 3 October, the CPT announced that İmralı F Type High Security Prison was among the institutions it visited.
However, Asrın Law Office reported that during the CPT visit, they heard that there was no meeting with Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, and that this situation increased their concerns. Asrın Law Office declared on 29 November, “We have heard that Mr. Öcalan did not attend the meeting during the CPT’s visit to İmralı Island in September 2022”.
