Lawyer Bilmez: Laws do not apply in Imrali prison

The Turkish authorities recently imposed a new punishment on leader and other detainees in Imrali prison for a period of 3 months, which raised the question, "What are the laws in force in Imrali?"

In an interview with ANHA Agency the Lawyer Ibrahim Bilmez, one of Leader Abdullah Ocalan’s lawyers stated that the prevailing system in Imrali is an illegal one.

Bilmez pointed out that there has been no response to the requests submitted within the framework of the law so far, “The system that was prepared specifically for Imrali and has prevailed since 1999 until now has no legal dimension.”

Bilmez explained that the Turkish state violates its own laws, and said: “ We cannot do our work as lawyers. We cannot defend our client. Under this law, all authorities must help lawyers perform their duty."

Bilmez made the point clear that no laws or treaties were implemented in Imrali, and provided the following information:

Many articles of the Penal Code No. 5275 are being violated, and to prevent visits to detainees’ families, they first create pretexts such as “disciplinary penalties.” They recently imposed a new disciplinary penalty that prevents meeting with the family. These disciplinary penalties are imposed periodically every 3 months.

- Article 25 of the Penal Code stipulates the right to family visitation.

These visits are prohibited under the second clause of Article 43 of the Penal Code, but as stated in the reports of the European Committee against Torture, there are no reasons to prohibit or prevent family visits, and Article 25, regarding the right to allow family visits to the detainee violates Article 43 itself which used to impose disciplinary penalties without fulfilling its conditions.

- Article 66 of the Penal Code stipulates the right to make phone calls, but this right is not allowed to be exercised, and Mr. Ocalan has only made two phone calls since his arrest in Imrali until now.

- Article 68 of the Penal Code stipulates the right to send messages, and we do not know whether the messages we send reach Imrali or not, while no messages arrive from there, so this law is also violated.

Article 107 of the Penal Code stipulates the right to conditional release. Under this law, our client, Mr. Veysi Aktaş, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, should have been released after 30 years, but this did not implement and his sentence was extended for another year.

Violated rights stipulated in international treaties

Violated rights stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, the European Convention on Human Rights and UN Conventions (the Convention on International Political and Civil Rights and the Convention on International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).

The right not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment stipulated in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 17 of the Turkish Constitution was violated in Imrali, imposing absolute isolation over a period of 3 and a half years and not allowing communication with anyone is considered psychological torture and ill-treatment, according to the court’s decision.

The right to a fair trial stipulated in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 36 of the Turkish Constitution was violated in many aspects, including preventing meetings with lawyers, not informing our clients of disciplinary penalties.

Not allowing our clients to meet or telephone their families is a violation of the right to respect for family and private life stipulated in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 20 of the Turkish Constitution.

Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the right of individuals to freedom and security stipulated in Article 19 of the Turkish Constitution have been violated. Our clients are not arrested in accordance with the laws.

- In Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 38 of the Turkish Constitution. The form of punishment that our clients are serving does not exist in any laws, so it is illegal.

- The principle of freedom of expression stipulated in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 25 of the Turkish Constitution is violated, since our clients are not allowed to express themselves in any way.

- Violation of the right to effective request stipulated in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 40 of the Turkish Constitution. Our clients are unable to submit any effective request because they do not meet with their lawyers, as the Supreme Court rejects their requests. Despite all our requests, they do not provide us with drafts of disciplinary penalties or the decisions of the Execution Court under which our clients are punished.

Legal methods and techniques to deal with these violations

Bilmez shared the requests submitted against violations of laws at the levels of domestic and international law.

“At the level of internal law, we object to disciplinary penalties and the ban on meetings with lawyers, but the Turkish Enforcement Court in Bursa directly rejects these objection requests.

We submit objection requests to the Supreme Criminal Court in Bursa against the decisions of the Execution Court in Bursa, but our objection requests are rejected with a very brief decision and without stating any reason.

- We review the Constitutional Court, but unfortunately the procedures in this court continue for years and decisions are never taken, and if the Constitutional Court rejects the decision - and of course it is rejected many times - this time we resort to international legal mechanisms.

- We are reviewing the European Court of Human Rights, and we have submitted many requests in this context. It is clear that there is injustice and a lack of law. We do not get an effective result, and until the internal law ends, the procedures continue for years and we wait for visits from the European Court of Human Rights for years.

- We have reviewed the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which is also an international court like the European Court of Human Rights. Turkey is a signatory to the United Nations Twin Convention, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee accepted our request to take the necessary measures and issued a decision to do so, and informed Turkey of the necessity of immediate permission. Imrali detainees were allowed to meet with their lawyers without any restrictions, but unfortunately Turkey did not implement this, so we reported this to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, reminding Turkey of its decision again. However, Turkey did not implement this decision again.

- We are in constant contact with the European Committee against Torture, and the committee visited Imrali 8 times and revealed the reports of these visits, but it did not publish its report related to its ninth visit, and the committee had warned Turkey several times in its reports. The previous report identified many violations, but Turkey has not implemented any of them, and Turkey has not yet approved the latest report, while the European Committee against Torture has not published it, but our meetings with the latter continue.

“Isolation is not separate from the Kurdish issue”

Lawyer Ibrahim Bilmez stated that the policy pursued towards Imrali is not separate from the Kurdish issue, and continued: “Mr. Ocalan raised this matter during his trials in Imrali, saying: ‘My case is a political issue, not just a legal one,’ and that is why the struggle must take place on the legal and political levels.” Therefore, we care about the legal and diplomatic aspects. We must take action and raise our voices loudly against isolation.”

a.k

ANHA