HDP Co-Chairs apply to meet with imprisoned PKK leader

HDP Co-Chairs apply to meet with imprisoned PKK leader
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Ocalan has been held under severe isolation for 18 months which prevents him from meeting with his family or lawyers due to disciplinary penalties and visitation prohibitions

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar applied to the ministry of justice to meet with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in the Imrali island, HDP Spokesperson Ebru Gunay said in a press conference on Thursday. 

“This hostile policy [towards Kurds] started with the Imrali isolation system. Mr. Ocalan has presented proposals for a solution to Kurdish question and peace for years,” Gunay said, adding that the government kept these views in isolation.

"The first thing the AKP-MHP government did was to isolate Mr. Ocalan in order to continue the policy of war, to continue the policy of denial, to institutionalize fascism," she said.

Severe isolation for 18 months

Ocalan has been held under severe isolation for 18 months which prevents him from meeting with his family or lawyers due to disciplinary penalties and visitation prohibitions.

The last time an observer contacted Ocalan was in September when a delegation of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out an ad hoc visit to the prison. 

The CPT is the only international body possessing the authority to visit prisons without the permission of governments in the 46 member states of the Council of Europe.

Last month, 350 lawyers from 22 countries around the world applied to the ministry of justice with a request to meet with the PKK leader, saying the deepening isolation violated the agreements on prevention of torture.