Turkey’s prominent rights watchdog has petitioned the Turkish Justice Ministry to send an independent delegation to İmralı Island Prison, where Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held in solitary confinement since 1999, and under total incommunicado for the last 33 months.

The Human Rights Association (İHD) formally requested to send a delegation to the İmralı F Type High-Security penal institution on Wednesday. The association highlighted numerous appeals it had received regarding the inmates at the institution, including Abdullah Öcalan, Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar, and Veysi Aktaş, who have not been allowed to meet with their families or lawyers for nearly three years.

In the petition, the İHD stated that they have received multiple complaints alleging complete isolation of these inmates and the consequent lack of any communication with their families or lawyers. Additionally, the İHD learned about hunger strikes in various prisons, staged in protest to the lack of information regarding the well-being of the İmralı Prison inmates.

The İHD, advocating for anti-discrimination and rights, demanded an immediate end to discriminatory practices in the penal system. The petition emphasised that the practice of solitary confinement violates universal human rights standards and prison regulations set by the Council of Europe and the United Nations, to which Turkey is a signatory.