No One Knows If PKK Head Is Safe, Turkey Rules Isolation Legal

Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdish PKK guerrilla group, will not be granted access to his lawyers or family, ruled the Turkish Constitutional Court on Saturday.

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Free Abdullah Öcalan!

His lawyers filed an injunction on July 20, claiming that Ocalan was likely targeted by the putschists on July 15 and that his isolation is arbitrary.

According to Ibrahim Bilmez, one of his lawyers, “millions of people follow Mr. Ocalan’s health and general situation and the concern deepens and social tensions rise when they can’t hear from him. Especially after such a coup attempt, people were alarmed and concerned even more when they couldn’t get any information, which is a rightful concern,” he told Firat News Agency.

The application for an injunction order pointed out that all requests from Ocalan’s lawyers and family to speak and meet with him were rejected and that the lawyers had not met with their client since July 27, 2011. The high-security Imrali island prison, where he is held, insisted that Ocalan is safe, but his lawyers are still concerned.

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The court rejected the application on the grounds that the court could only rule whether or not there exists a threat to Ocalan’s life, but that the application did not make such a request.

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"It is obvious that the Court has treated this issue politically and does not act in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution,” said Rezan Sarica, one of his lawyers, to Firat News Agency. “This decision extinguishes the law and paves the way for the continuation of this aggravated isolation.”

He said the team will seek other international mechanisms to ensure Ocalan’s safety and that the Constitutional Court has a reputation for not protecting the safety of Turkey’s Kurds. The court had previously been comprised of several member of the Gulen movement — accused of plotting the coup — who were also adverse to Kurdish requests.

“Mr. Ocalan being handed over to Turkey, being put on trial, receiving the death penalty first and then the penalty being reduced to aggravated life sentence isn’t separate from the Kurdish question,” said Bilmez. “This is a political trial, thus the solution of this trial is directly connected to the solution of the Kurdish issue.”

He added that the repressive conditions, which were not even seen during the 1980 coup, are turning the whole country into an Imrali prison.