Researcher: isolation is arbitrary and illegal

The Turkish occupation authorities, leader Abdullah Ocalan, have been imprisoned since 1999 after his arrest following an international conspiracy, which began on 9 October 1998, when he exited Syria until his arrest in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 15 February 1999.

Since his arrest, the authorities of the occupying state have been imposing severe isolation on the leader on Imrali Island for almost 24 years. The last time leader Ocalan reached out to the outside world was 25 March 2021 when he spoke with his brother Mohammed Ocalan on the phone only 5 minutes and then disconnected. After that telephone, neither his family nor his lawyer saw him or spoke to him, nor received any news from him.

Last September (20-29), CPT representatives visited Imrali, but gave no information about the situation of leader Ocalan and other detainees.

Following that visit, last 29 November, according to information received, the Human Rights al-Asr Office stated that during the CPT visit to Imrali, leader Ocalan did not attend the meeting and expressed concerns about the leader's situation.

Arbitrary and unlawful arrest

Commenting on the subject, researcher and human rights researcher Aram Haji stated that "belonging to a legitimate issue such as the Kurdish issue and attempting to address it in a democratic, civil and peaceful manner remove the criminal responsibility of any person belonging to it; Thus, there are no procedures such as arrest, detention for alleged commission of a crime. "

He added: "What has been done against Mr. Ocalan and his comrades is considered a crime by its actors. It is essentially not persuaded and undefined as a crime until it is held legally accountable. I mean the Kurdish case. Hence we see the injustice of the arrest and detention proceedings, and what is based on falsehood, not to mention the principle of no crime and no punishment except by text. This is with regard to arrest as a measure.”

He went on to say: "When we talk about detention; In the sense that a person is legally deprived of his or her personal liberty, detention comes in the sense of not being convicted of a crime, and when the person is not convicted, he or she is innocent until proven guilty, i.e. the conviction separates detention from imprisonment; The imprisonment follows the accused's conviction, the admission of his guilt by law and the imposition of a punitive measure against him as a case of injustice or as a deterrent to others.”

He pointed out that "even if we consider them detained, in the sense that a deprivation of liberty measure has been taken and placed in a prison institution, the detention also comes in the sense that there is no conclusive decision to convict, and in the absence of a peremptory decision, it means that there is no responsibility to convict against them, i.e. to uphold the principle that the accused is innocent, and the status of innocence means what? means the release, rehabilitation and compensation of the accused for the detention that has arisen, and the persistence of the detention amounts to arbitrary and unlawful action against an innocent and unlawful human being, and marks the independence and fairness of the judiciary in prosecuting! ".

He explained: "All of this leads to going to other things about the illegality of those dealings, i.e. going to the politicization of the judiciary. Not to mention the fact that this case is linked to human rights, which it does not deny in their human capacity and whose rights may not be extracted under any pretext because they are linked to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international treaties on civil and political rights and the right to life and the law shall not be arbitrarily deprived of it.

Politically motivated behind isolation

Speaking of isolation, Haji said that it "comes as an arbitrary, unlawful and inhumane measure, and if we look for its motives we must look for them judiciary, i.e. the reasons behind those motives, which I see as purely political", to separate between Mr. Ocalan and the political space of Turkey and the region, because it recognizes the extent of its effective effects and what it aims to do, which (Turkey) does not want to go public because it does not serve its aggressive and chauvinistic strategy towards the Kurdish issue internally and externally.”

On the recent visit of the European Committee against Torture to Imrali, Haji asked: "Explicitly, this visit carries more than one question. Why did the Committee visit? Why didn't others participate in it? Has the visit really taken place? If done, why didn't you announce its results? Who prevents it from speaking about its results? And if not, why not? Why is this silence? Isn't it right to wonder what happened and what was going on? So it can be said; The Committee has not performed its duties.”

On the reasons for international failure to resolve the issue of isolation, Haji said that "This is a fundamental and important question and the responsibility to answer it lies with the international forum. whether to discharge its responsibility towards the Kurdish cause, as a legitimate, just and self-determination issue and as an international headquarters through binding treaties and treaties or to assume its responsibility towards Mr. Ocalan and his associates as detainees who are not legally and judicially guilty and who deal with him arbitrarily s human, moral and international responsibilities as proclaimed as principles, charters and treaties.”

T/ Satt.

ANHA