Sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment in İmralı Prison, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and three other inmates, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, who were sent to İmralı along with Öcalan on 15 March 2015, are all subject to the same isolation practices.

Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers have made several applications to the Turkish legal authorities for a lawyer-client visit to see him in Imralı, and the Asrın Law Office has made an application to the CPT regarding the conditions of absolute isolation being imposed on the Kurdish leader, yet all their efforts remain unanswered.

Veysi Aktaş, one of these detainees, has only been able to talk to his family face-to-face three times, on 5 June and 12 August 2019 and 2 March 2020, and once by phone on 27 April, since he was transferred to Imrali.

Aktaş’s sister Sabiha Aslan, shared her views on the imposition of isolation conditions in Imrali Prison.

Speaking to Mesopotamia Agency (MA) Sabiha Aslan said she is concerned about the health of prisoners in İmralı. Aslan said, ”It is not a place where people can stay. There is no such cruelty anywhere else in the world. No prophet has foreseen such cruelty, nobody has ever seen it.”

”We can’t meet with them, and we worry about their state of health. They are continuously subjected to disciplinary punishment. There is no freedom. They do not have any rights, how is it possible for them to go outside the rules or restrictions? These are excuses,” she said.

”No institution fulfills its duty, especially when it comes to the Kurds. There has been no such lawlessness in the history world. (Imralı) is not a place where a person can stay, it’s like hell,”

Calling for support and solidarity, Aslan called on everyone to take action against the ongoing isolation in Imralı.