Evidence of isolation on Imrali: 393 denials to lawyers, 65 to family
ÇAĞDAŞ KAPLAN
İSTANBUL (DİHA) - The demands of lawyers and families to meet with PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan have been declined since 27 July 2011.
Since the Turkish government and international powers collaborated to capture Öcalan in 1999, Turkey has aggressively pursued a policy of isolating the jailed leader in a high-security F-type prison on İmralı Island. With the government nearly freezing the peace process, the İmralı Delegation of opposition party and civil society leaders meeting with Öcalan as part of the peace process has now announced that they are being denied access to the island.
393 applications of lawyers declined
The lawyers' applications to meet Ocalan are being declined with pseudo-reasons like "bad weather conditions", "the ship out of order", "the ship is under repairment", "official holiday" or "the ship returned from the repairment, however the documents which need to be taken from ship harbor master's office are deficient". Since 27 July 2011, 393 applications of the lawyers have been declined.
65 applications of family declined
Meanwhile, 65 applications of Öcalan's family have been rejected since 27 July 2011. Althouh Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu recently claimed on a television program that there was "no isolation" going on, the prosecution denied also the last application last week.
'Isolation is ongoing since 1999'
Ocalan has not been able to meet with his lawyers since 27 July 2011. Öcalan's lawyer Mazlum Dinç said, "The isolation is ongoing since 1999. But, its degree was increased after Erdoğan and AKP halted the peace process. This isolation is sometimes aggravated in accordance with political conjuncture. The applications are being rejected with illegal pretexts. The applications of lawyers are being denied arbitrarily".
'Freedom of Öcalan is essential'
Lawyer Dinç added they had concerns over his health. "We applied to international judgements, but have not taken any results yet. The isolation on Dear Öcalan, who is the assurance of peace and democratic solution process and architect of this peace process, must be removed as soon as possible. His conditions must be improved anymore. If they target a final solution in this process, freedom of Öcalan is essential".
(nt)
