Right of visitation in İmralı Prison taken to ECtHR

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The Asrın Law Bureau has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding the failure to grant the convicts in İmralı Prison the right to receive family visitation. The Constitutional Court, the top court of Turkey, found this application "inadmissible."

As reported by Mehmet Aslan from Mezopotamya Agency (MA), jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and other convicts Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Ateş and Hamili Yıldırım have been unable to have a family visitation in the İmralı Prison.

CLICK - Öcalan not able to communicate with outside world since 2020

The lawyers from the Asrın Law Office and families make applications to both İmralı Prison Directorate and to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office every week, but these applications are left unresponded.

CLICK - Öcalan talks to his brother on the phone after 11 months

Held in the İmralı Prison for 22 years, Abdullah Öcalan met his lawyers for the first time after 8 years and met them on May 2-22, June 12-18 and August 7, 2019. Öcalan could exercise his right to make a phone call for the first time on April 27, 2020. The second and last phone call between Öcalan and his brother Mehmet Öcalan on March 25 was interrupted.

Brought to the İmralı Prison in 2015, Hamili Yıldırım, Veysi Aktaş and Ömer Hayri Konar have been unable to exercise these rights as well. Despite 750 applications for the visit of lawyers and 350 applications for the visit of families, Yıldırım saw his family twice, Konar and Aktaş three times.

'No visitation when no response is given'

Lawyer Raziye Öztürk from the Asrın Law Bureau has indicated that no positive or negative response has been given to the lawyers' applications for meeting since March: "The failure to give a response means that it is negative on our part. Because no meeting takes place."

Lawyer Öztürk has recalled that as the local courts rejected their applications about the prevention of lawyers' and families' visitations, the disciplinary punishments given to the convicts and the refusal to give the documents about these punishments, they applied to the Constitutional Court.

"We have been unable to contact our clients for a very long time. The judicial authorities are obligated to ensure this. These violations lead to more aggravated conditions," the lawyer has underlined further.

Top court: It complies with the law

In December 2020, lawyers made an application to the Bursa Judgeship of Execution and Heavy Penal Court and requested a copy of the disciplinary board decisions against their clients and the removal of the unfair and unlawful disciplinary penalties imposed on their clients. The applications regarding Aktaş, Yıldırım and Konar were rejected by the related courts.

In response to this, lawyers applied to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that these decisions were against the law. The Constitutional Court has found the applications "inadmissible."

Arguing that there was no violation, the top court has found it "in compliance with the law" that the applications for visitation are rejected.

While the application regarding Öcalan has not yet been concluded, lawyers have applied to the ECtHR for their three clients, for whom the Constitutional Court has given rulings of rejection. In the applications made to the ECtHR on September 22-24, it was emphasized that the right of family visitation is guaranteed by the Constitution, international and human rights conventions.

CPT reports documented the violations

Lawyer Öztürk has stressed that the ECtHR should bring the application to its agenda quickly and give a judgement in favor.

"In its reports following its meetings in İmralı, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has put forward that the reponses of Turkey to the violations are far from being credible," the lawyer has recalled and briefly added: "The CPT has some findings indicating that the family and lawyer visitations must be ensured regularly. It has wanted this to be observed. Despite these warnings, we are faced with a gradually deteriorating picture. While these findings are there, a ruling of rights violations must be given urgently." (AS/SD)