The administration at the İmralı Prison on the Turkish island of the same name has issued another six-month visitation ban to Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed founding leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Öcalan’s lawyers discovered when they appealed to meet with their client after the expiry of the previous ban.

The previous penalty should have expired in mid-October, marking a 19-month period in which Öcalan was held in an absolute incommunicado state, the lawyers told Mezopotamya Agency.

The judge overseeing execution of sentences in the north-western Bursa province, where the island is located, informed Öcalan’s lawyers on 18 October that the ban had expired. The new ban went into force three days later, on 21 October, which the lawyers found out when they submitted their latest appeal on 26 October.

The content of this most recent penalty has not been declared to the lawyers, who are preparing an objection.

The PKK leader’s last contact with his lawyers had been on 7 August 2019, and he was able to briefly speak with his brother Mehmet Öcalan on the phone some 19 months later, on 25 March 2021. Since this last contact with the outside world, Öcalan has remained in complete isolation inside the prison for another 19 months.

Currently there is another three-month ban to family visits issued to Öcalan, dated 9 September. This penalty was finalised on 28 September, but Öcalan’s lawyers were notified of it on 5 October.

This disciplinary penalty against family visitations came ahead of a visit to the prison by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) between September 20 and 29.