Abdullah Öcalan’s Attorney: We Made 962 Applications to Meet Him, Only 5 Accepted

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Rezan Sarıca, the attorney of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan, has announced that only five of their 962 applications to meet him in İmralı Prison have been approved since 2011.

PKK leader Öcalan has been behind bars in İmralı Island High Security Type F Closed Prison for 21 years since 1999.

In an interview to Sadiye Eser from the Mezopotamya Agency, lawyer Sarıca from the Asrın Law Bureau has indicated that no responses, positive or negative, have been given for these applications and this lack of responses means rejection rather than uncertainty.

"The İmralı isolation system operating in the person of Mr. Öcalan and İmralı Prison continues by disregarding, denying and violating the fundamental rights and freedoms," Rezan Sarıca has protested.

CLICK - Öcalan Talks to His Family on the Phone After 21 Years 

'Profession of attorneyship by-passed'

"The statistics on meetings show that the profession of attorneyship, which is safeguarded by the Constitution and international conventions, has been bypassed in İmralı," attorney Sarıca has indicated further and said that the profession of attorneyship is prevented in İmralı in two main ways.

Considering that Öcalan is held in a prison on an island, the lawyers are "prevented from meeting Öcalan and their other clients about their rights and the current legal system." Secondly, "all administrative and judicial applications are ignored by a central will in constitutional application mechanisms and they are rejected without considering their content."

Referring to İmralı Prison, the attorney has noted that "there is no accessible, reachable, eligible, valid and legitimate system of law." (HA/SD)