The 9th issue of the ‘Isolation Bulletin’, prepared every 15 days by the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), was published. The bulletin emphasised that no news had been received from Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners Hamili Yıldırım, Veysi Aktaş and Ömer Hayri Konar in İmralı F Type High Security Prison for 3 years, 6 months and 17 days.
It was stated that İmralı has been under isolation for 24 years, 7 months and 28 days, family visits have been denied for 4 years, 7 months and 10 days, and lawyer visits have been denied for 5 years, 2 months and 16 days. The bulletin also gave coverage to the ÖHD statement in front of the Constitutional Court (AYM) with hundreds of lawyers, who called on the Constitutional Court to put an end to the systematic and increasingly severe violations of rights in İmralı.
The bulletin also included the information requested by the United Nations (UN) on the ongoing isolation in İmralı: “The Committee expressed its concern about the ongoing isolation in İmralı in the report in question. It requested the State to provide information by 26 July 2015 on the facilitation of meetings between prisoners serving aggravated life sentences and prisoners in İmralı Prison and their families and legal representatives.”
In addition to the ‘Give voice to freedom’ protests, 69 Nobel laureates sent letters against the isolation to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
The bulletin also included an appeal from European legal organisations to the Turkish Ministry of Justice. 1,500 lawyers from Europe sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice to go to İmralı.
The 3rd page of the bulletin covered the evaluations on isolation by the family of Abdulkadir Kuday, a seriously ill prisoner who died in prison after seeing his release prevented. It noted that ÖHD, TOHAV, TİHV, ÇHD and CISST made a written notification to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe within the scope of rule 9/2 for the ‘Right to Hope’.
The bulletin also drew attention to the ‘Justice Against Isolation Initiative’ founded by non-governmental organisations and said, “The initiative has announced that they will fight against isolation. The initiative will reach out to all segments of society in a short period of time to explain the isolation in İmralı Island Prison.” Finally, it stated that another application was made to the bar associations to ask about the fate of the applications made by ÖHD lawyers to the Ministry of Justice against the isolation in İmralı: “ÖHD lawyers applied to Istanbul, Izmir, Hakkari, Urfa and Adıyaman bar associations and asked about the fate of the applications to the Ministry of Justice.”
Source: ANF News