Turkish authorities impose sanction on Ocalan's leader, 3 others detainees in Imrali prison

In light of the continued arbitrary prohibition of meetings with leader Ocalan and three of his comrades detained in Imrali prison (Omer Hayrî Konar, Hamîlî Yildirim and Veysî Aktaş), a new punitive procedure against them in the form of secret disciplinary sanctions has emerged.

The lawyers were able to conduct the meeting with leader Ocalan for the first time after an interruption of 8 years on May 2, and subsequent meetings were held on May 2 and 22, 12 and 18 July and 7 August.

Whereas, requests for the meeting were rejected in the previous times from the dates mentioned above, arbitrarily and illegally, and all requests submitted after the date of August 7 did not receive any positive or negative response.

Since 2015, Omer Hayrî Konar, Hamîlî Yildirim and Veysî Aktaş have not been able to meet their families, except on July 5 and August 12 of 2019.

According to the Mazobutamia news agency, the disciplinary sanctions were issued on October 21, against the leader Ocalan and his three detained comrades.

Ibrahim Bilmes, one of the lawyers at the Office of Human Rights in charge of defending the detainees in Imrali, said that the prison administration imposed a disciplinary punishment against leader Ocalan and three of his comrades, on the tenth of last July.

Bilmes added that after the sentence imposed on July 10 ended, the prison administration returned and imposed the punishment again on October 21.

According to Bilmes, who spoke to Mazobutamia Agency, "The other three detainees objected to this punishment decision, while leader Ocalan refused to object to this punishment and considered it a political position and requires a political response in return. Mr. Ocalan is subject to the punishment, but the legal process continues because our other clients have submitted the objection."

Bilmes stated that they only learned of this last disciplinary punishment on November 29, and that they lodged their objections on behalf of leader Ocalan and their other clients, but that all objections were rejected.

"Knowing that these sanctions were imposed a long time ago, they were of a secret nature, and we still do not know their content," he said.

Bilmes stressed that these disciplinary punishments are only related to prohibiting meeting with the family and are not related to preventing meetings with lawyers legally.

(T/S)

ANHA