Jailed PKK leader allowed to meet lawyers 'only 5 times despite 100 applications' in 2019

PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's lawyer İbrahim Bilmez has said that they are prevented from meeting with their client on İmralı Island, adding that they've been filing two applications per week since the beginning of 2019, but only five of them were approved. "Strong political and legal struggle is required for this system to be abolished. As long as this isolation system is not removed, arbitrariness will continue," Bilmez said.

Duvar English

Lawyers of jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan applied to meet their client 100 times in 2019, but were allowed to do so only five times, one of his lawyers said, adding that they haven't been able to receive responses from authorities for months.

Lawyer İbrahim Bilmez said that they've been filing two applications per week since the beginning of 2019 to meet Öcalan on İmralı Island, where he has been serving a life sentence since 1999, but were prevented most of the time "arbitrarily."

"Arbitrariness prevails in the absence of law. This applies for İmralı," Bilmez told Mesopotamia Agency on Dec. 22, adding that Öcalan was allowed to meet his family members three times although the same number of applications were filed.

"The last time we were able to visit him was on Aug. 7 and we haven't been able to receive responses since then," Bilmez also said.

After an eight-year ban on lawyer-client meeting, Öcalan was allowed to meet his lawyers on May 2, following hunger strikes and death fasts launched by hundreds of supporters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), with lawmaker Leyla Güven initiating the move to demand an end to Öcalan’s isolation, including access to lawyers.

The next meeting was held on May 22, where Öcalan called for an end to hunger strikes, which ended on May 26 following his call.

Another three meetings were held on June 12, June 18 and Aug. 7.

During his interview, Bilmez said that isolation towards Öcalan is continuing.

"Strong political and legal struggle is required for this system to be abolished. As long as this isolation system is not removed, arbitrariness will continue," he said, as he also slammed Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) for not doing enough to prevent Öcalan's isolation.

"The CPT became one of the architects of the isolation system in the past 20 years, but we continue to talk to them and let them know about the developments," Bilmez said.