International Initiative
Freedom for Ocalan – Peace in Kurdistan
P.O. Box 100511, D-50445 Cologne
E-Mail: info@freedom-for-ocalan.com
Url: www.freedom-for-ocalan.com


Cologne, 11 November 2002

Press Release:
Abdullah Ocalan: For 4 weeks no admission for his lawyers

Ocalan lawyers call on Council of Europe and Amnesty International for intervention because of aggravated conditions of detention

On November 7, 2002 six of Mr. Ocalan’s lawyers from the Asrin law firm in Istanbul sent a letter to the European Council’s anti-torture committee (CPT) and to Amnesty International after having been denied access to their client for more than four weeks.

We document excerpts of this letter in English translation.

“Mr. Ocalan is the sole prisoner on the island of Imrali which has been declared a military area with a radius of five seamiles. Legally, the island is administrated by the so-called Crisis Management Group, a unit which is meant to deal with natural desasters, wars or the likes.

It is endowed with extraordinary powers and not subjected to judicial control. Its legal status and the conditions of its administration make this prison a quite controversial facility.

It is not only for necessary security measures that Mr. Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali. There are several reasons why the Turkish government prefers this facility. The island can easily be isolated from the outer world, lawyers and family can be prevented from visiting by giving rather incredulous reasons, and conditions of police detention and the negative situation effected by them can be maintained permanently.

Officially, the Imrali prison is under control of the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, the island however is a military area. Therefore access is controlled by military officers endowed with special powers. Any inbound or outbound documents are controlled by the military and need their permission in order to be delivered to our client.

In this severe isolation Mr. Ocalan can keep in touch with the outer world only with the help and the visits of his lawyers and his family (first grade) for one hour per week excepting Wednesdays.

The island can only be reached by a very primitive transport contraption named Imrali-9, which can carry 10 people altogether. It takes up to three hours to get to the island and even only slightly bad weather makes the crossing impossible. Generally, transit with this boat means your life is endangered. Now and then the authorities claim that the crossing was impossible because of damage to the boat’s engine. No alternative is offered, however.

Only Mr. Ocalan’s lawyers and first grade relatives can get first hand information. In spite of the ongoing proceedings before the Ankara criminal court, the European Court of Human Rights and the Athens criminal court to completely prevent our talking with the client – which is limited in time anyway – under the pretext of bad weather conditions. Therefore we cannot discuss legal developments with our client and thus his defence is hampered in effect. […]

His family can only visit him once a month because of age, health and the great distance to Imrali (700 miles). In conjunction with the difficulties mentioned Mr. Ocalan’s chances to receive visitors are notedly limited.

Daily press is provided by us. It is limited in selection (Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sabah) and number (8 – 10 per week). There are also limitations for books and other publications.

He is only allowed two hours in the prison yard a day ( one hour in the morning, one in the afternoon) compared with the other F-type prisons (high security sections) where this is allowed all day.

Mr. Ocalan cannot participate in any social or sports activities. He has applied several times for a TV-set which has always been denied. He can only receive the national radio station TRT. There have been thousands of letters for him, of which he was only handed those few that mange to pass the thorough examination. […]

The recent report of the anti-torture committee (CPT) following two visits to Imrali describes the space of the “prison yard” as 4.5 meters wide and 4 meters high and with a lattice on top. The report requests an improvement of the conditions. So far there has never been a response to such requests. This situation already lasts for three years and eight months and poses an acute risk for the physical and mental health of Mr. Ocalan. Meanwhile the CPT published its reports since the Turkish government did nothing to improve the situation.

We as lawyers of Mr. Ocalan have also filed several applications to loosen the severe conditions and to achieve a more dignified and acceptable situation. Neither the Turkish Ministry of Justice nor the Head Office for the Correctional Facilities nor the public prosecutor’s office in Bursa which is responsible have as yet responded to these applications.

Since August 3, 2002 the death penalty has been abolished in Turkey in the framework of the EU- adaptation laws und Mr. Ocalan’s death penalty was converted into a life sentence in the scope of which also his situation should have been improved. Obviously though, his conditions have even been tightened. There is no legal justification for that. The isolation and the prison conditions Mr. Ocalan has been subjected to for 4 years were rotted in the system of capital punishment. These conditions are still maintained unabatedly. […]

During the past six weeks we have only been able to see our client for one hour. His family couldn’t see him at all. The CPT reports state that the isolation and the prison conditions are in violation of both the Turkish law and articles 3,5,6,8 and 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights. We are deeply concerned, therefore, for the life and health of Mr. Ocalan because of these arbitrary and discriminating prison conditions.

The CPT makes it clear that his isolation poses a serious threat for the mental and physical well-being of Mr. Ocalan.

In view of the fact that the preceding visits by the CPT that we expressly welcomed did have a positive effect on the government, we now request the CPT to visit Mr. Ocalan regularly during the time of his imprisonment and to give its observations and recommendations as to his prison conditions in publicly available reports.