German politician says Turkish gov't refusing his demand to visit jailed PKK leader

Duvar English

Andrej Hunko, a member of the German Bundestag from the Left Party and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has said that Turkish authorities were not giving him permission to visit the jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Hunko said that he had so far filed many applications with the Turkish authorities to see the imprisonment conditions of Öcalan on the İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara. “Unfortunately my applications to visit the İmralı are being prevented by Turkish authorities,” Hunko told Fırat News Agency on Dec. 4.

Meanwhile, it has come out that a six-month ban was placed on Öcalan on Oct. 12 to see his lawyers under the “disciplinary punishment.” The PKK leader was also given a three-month ban to see his family members.

In the aftermath of this new ban, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Dec. 3 called on Turkey to provide information about Öcalan in the framework of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by September 2022.

The ECHR had ruled in 2014 that Turkey had violated the rights of Öcalan, saying that his solitary confinement was "inhuman."

Despite the ECHR decision, Öcalan's imprisonment conditions have not changed, with Hunko saying that the bans of contact imposed on the PKK leader cannot be accepted.

Hunko said that Öcalan's imprisonment conditions are not in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and violate the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment.

He also said that the Committee of Ministers had made it clear about the necessity of an inspection mechanism with regards to Öcalan's imprisonment conditions.
 
He said that Turkey's refusal to comply with the ECHR rulings with regards to violations of rights made it necessary for the Council of Europe members, especially German, to “cut their ties their relations with the Turkish government in the areas of military, police forces, judiciary and intelligence.”

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