Fabien Roussel, the Communist Party’s candidate in the French Presidential elections on April 10th, called for the “release” of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) Leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence in Imrali F type prison for 23 years.

Roussel posted the following message on Twitter with the hashtag “#freeocalan”:

” Kurdish leader A.Ocalan has been imprisoned for 24 years in violation of international conventions. His release will pave the way for peace to promote the progressive, feminist and ecological project of the Kurds.”

#freeocalan

Fabien Roussel is a French politician who is the current National Secretary (party leader) of the French Communist Party (PCF). He was elected MP representing Nord’s 20th constituency on 21 June 2017. Coming from an activist family, Roussel is the son of Daniel Roussel, former journalist at L’Humanité. Roussel is a father of five, is currently working hard for the upcoming French presidential election in April.

Roussel and his party PCF have been on good terms with the Kurdish people for many years. Roussel also participated in the commemoration event this year for the three Kurdish women politicians who were assassinated in Paris on January 9, 2013.

Also yesterday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon the French Presidential candidate of the left’s Union Populaire also tweeted to his 2.4 million followers saying:

“Ocalan has been in prison for 23 years in Turkey. Almost as much as Mandela. It is unjust. For peace it is neccessary to release Ocalan”

The tweets from the two French left presidential candidates came at the same time that Kurds and friends had organised an online global Twitterstorm under the hashtag #FreeOcalanNow which saw a record amount of tweets over the day of 15 February with over 70,000 in just the first hour of the launch alone.