Imprisoned PKK leader receives three month ban on family visits

The disciplinary board of the Imrali island penitentiary where PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) leader Abdullah Ocalan has been serving a lif sentence issued a three-month family visit ban on Ocalan and his fellow prisoners, lawyers said.

For over 21 months, no news has been received from Ocalan and his fellow inmates Omer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktas and Hamili Yıldırım, who have been held in aggravated isolation for 24 months in the F Type High Security Prison on Imrali Island, Mezopotamya News Agency reported.

After a previous ban expired on 15 September, lawyers from Asrin Law Office submitted another application to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, demanding that a visit by families be enabled.

The application went unanswered, as was another application, submitted to the same office a week later.

After several more inconclusive applications, the lawyers received from the Bursa Execution Judge’s Office that a new three-month ban on family visits for Abdullah Ocalan and his fellow prisoners was put on order on January 4. The action was described as a “disciplinary punishment”, the motives and details of which, however, were not mentioned.

Lawyers from Asrin Law Office announced that they would apply to the Constitutional Court against the ban in question.