DİREN ENGÎZEK- MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

News Center- Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held in the prison island of Imrali for more than 26 years, as it is 43 months since he has had contact with the outside world. On September 17, 2024, the Committee of Ministers (CoM), the Council of Europe's decision-making body, held a meeting to discuss the isolation imposed on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in the prison island of Imrali and the violation of his “right to hope”, announcing that the committee would issue an interim decision in September 2025 after monitoring the implementation of the ECHR decision for a year.

In an interview with NuJINHA, Suzan Akipa, a lawyer of the Lawyers Association for Freedom (ÖHD), commented on the international conspiracy against Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, the isolation imposed on him, the decision of the CoM and the right to hope.

“The aggravated life imprisonment is a form of torture’

“As is known, Mr. Öcalan is a prisoner, who was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment,” Suzan Akipa said, “In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the aggravated life imprisonment sentence given to Mr. Öcalan constituted a violation of the prohibition against torture, declaring that such a sentence could be considered torture due to its extreme nature and lack of prospect for release.”

The Turkish state should amend its domestic law according to the right to hope, Suzan Akipa underlined. “An aggravated life sentence in Türkiye means a person is imprisoned for life with significantly limited chances of parole, without the right to hope, according to international conventions and law.”

Six applications to the CoM

Recalling that the Committee of Ministers put the situation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on its agenda for the first time in 2021, Suzan Akipa said, “During this process, the lawyers of the Asrin Law Office, different law organizations and NGOs in Türkiye had made legal notices. As the lawyers of the Asrin Law Office, we had applied to the CoM six times to put this issue on its agenda. About 10 years later, the committee put this issue on its agenda.”

In their applications, the lawyers emphasized that the Turkish state should amend its legislation that would recognize the right to hope. “We stated that the aggravated life sentence given to Mr.Öcalan was a structural problem. As of today, we do not know the total number of the people who face the aggravated life sentence. As we know, there are at least 4,000 aggravated life sentence convicts in Türkiye. The data regarding the number of persons sentenced to life imprisonment is not publicly available and is not shared with the NGOs despite numerous applications to the authorities.

‘Türkiye does not have a solution-oriented approach’

The meeting of the CoM in 2021 was important and the decision made by the committee in 2024 is a progressive and important development, Suzan Akipa said: “The Committee once again invited the Turkish authorities to provide information on the number of persons currently detained and sentenced to serve an irreducible life sentence. This shows that Türkiye does not have a solution-oriented approach.”

‘The aggravated isolation must end immediately’

The case of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan is a case of such historical and strategic importance that it cannot be postponed, Suzan Akipa emphasized. “The committee would issue an interim decision in September 2025 after monitoring the implementation of the ECHR decision for a year.

“The aggravated isolation is a right violation. Türkiye should urgently review its domestic law according to the international conventions and law. In addition, the aggravated isolation imposed on Mr.Öcalan must end immediately; he should be allowed to meet his lawyers and family members.”