AMED - Zeki Binbir from ÖHD stated that the application of 1,330 lawyers to the Ministry of Justice requesting a meeting with Abdullah Öcalan has still not been responded to.
PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in isolation in İmralı High Security Closed Prison for more than 25 years, has not been heard from Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş for 42 months. Lawyers and families are prevented from meeting with them on the grounds of “disciplinary punishment”.
In 2022, 775 lawyers registered to 29 different bar associations across Turkey first applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the İmralı Prison Administration for a meeting with Abdullah Öcalan. Again, 350 lawyers from 22 different countries, especially European countries, applied to the Ministry of Justice on September 14, 2022 and 756 lawyers from the Middle East applied to the Ministry of Justice on September 19, 2022, asking to meet with the prisoners in İmralı Prison. After these requests were left unanswered, 330 lawyers from 35 bar associations applied to the Ministry of Justice on January 22, 2024 to meet with Öcalan.
Zeki Binbir
While the applications are still unanswered, Zeki Binbir, a member of the Amed (Diyarbakır) Branch of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), made evaluations about their applications and the isolation.
NO OBSTACLE IN THE CONSTITUTION
Referring to the lack of news from PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners for 42 months, Binbir said: “There is no legal regulation in the legislation of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey regarding this obstacle to visitation. There is a regulation on the visits of convicts and detainees in the Constitution. Article 5 of the regulation stipulates certain conditions and visits should be possible within these conditions.”
Underlining that there is no obstacle in the regulation for convicts to meet with their families, lawyers and legal representatives even if there are confinement and disciplinary penalties, “Article 20 of the same regulation states that ‘the convict and his lawyer should be able to meet during working hours by presenting his identity card’. However, this is not practiced in İmralı Closed Execution Institution” Binbir said.
DISCIPLINARY PENALTIES CONTRARY TO CMK
Stating that Turkey does not apply its own laws, Binbir pointed out that the “disciplinary punishment” justification process has started after the “weather opposition” and “the coaster is broken” justifications presented earlier proved to be unsustainable. Binbir stated that neither the lawyers nor the families have any information about these disciplinary penalties.
23 DISCIPLINARY PENALTIES
Informing that prisoners and convicts have the right to appeal against disciplinary penalties and that the issue has been taken to the Constitutional Court (AYM), Binbir stated the following: “However, this is not the case in İmralı Prison. The decision is made and then finalized. Family visits are regularly prevented by the prison administration every 3 months. Again, every 6 months, a ban on lawyers is issued by the Execution Judges. No justification is given for this. We have learned about this situation as a result of criminal complaints and applications made by Mr. Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers in İmralı Prison. To date, we have learned that Mr. Abdullah Öcalan has 23 disciplinary penalties. But what are the reasons for these? When were they taken? We have no information. Again, this process is being carried out by the lawyers of Asrin Law Office regarding the disciplinary penalties and more than 60 applications have been taken to the Constitutional Court (AYM). However, it is seen that no decision has been made on these applications and the file is dragging on for some time. In fact, we see one dimension of the isolation in the fact that the Constitutional Court is holding the files in its hands and spreading them over time.”
NO RESPONSE TO APPLICATIONS
Informing about the application they made with approximately 1,330 lawyers from 35 bar associations, Binbir stated that they have not received any response from the Ministry of Justice and other institutions so far. Binbir said: “As ÖHD Amed Branch, applied to the Amed Bar Association about the fate of the applications, their status, what is being done and what will be done. The Amed Bar Association informed us that they had recorded this application and sent it to the Ministry of Justice and the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), but they have not received any response yet.”
SPREAD TO ALL PRISONS
Binbir said that isolation is the removal of a person from the society, cutting off his/her relationship with the society, and that the isolation in İmralı is not practiced anywhere in the world. Reminding that the isolation in İmralı has been going on for a long time as “uninterrupted” and “incommunicado”, Binbir emphasized that this isolation, which started in İmralı Prison, has spread to all prisons over time. Binbir said that within the scope of the “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, democratic solution to the Kurdish issue” campaign, hunger strikes were organized in other prisons, followed by boycotts of the courts and protests against family visits, and that it is possible to see the desire for peace in society when looking at all these protests.
'VOICE MUST BE RAISED AGAINST UNLAWFULNESS
Underlining the need for everyone to speak out in order to eliminate the existing unlawfulness, Binbir stated that as lawyers, they should make more effort in this sense. Binbir continued as follows: “There is an application made to the CPT by the lawyers of Asrın Law Office in recent days. There is an urgent call for a meeting. Because there is no news even about the health status of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. I hope these applications will be answered and national and international mechanisms will step in and eliminate this unlawfulness.”