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Kurdish rebel leader's solitary
confinement prevents meetings: lawyers
18.1.2006
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ISTANBUL, Jan 17,
2006 (AFP) - 14h10 - Lawyers representing jailed
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan protested
Tuesday that they were unable to meet their client
after authorities increased his isolation on a
prison island in northwestern Turkey.
Irfan Dundar, speaking on behalf of all lawyers
representing Ocalan, told a press conference here
their client, who was jailed in 1999, had been
sanctioned with a 20-day-long confinement in a cell,
a disciplinary measure which bars him from meeting
his lawyers.
A group of lawyers planning to visit him last week
were prevented from travelling out to the Imrali
prison island for that very reason, Dundar said.
"We believe it necessary to underline that this new
illegal and arbitrary practice which Ocalan has been
subjected to... is a decision that could lead to
very serious social tensions and conflicts," Dundar
said, reading out a press statement undersigned by
several pro-Kurdish associations. |
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan-
Kurdistan-Turkey. |
Dundar called on authorities to release information
on the health and welfare of Ocalan, whom they have
not been able to meet since November 30.
Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), was sentenced to death in 1999
for his role in his group's bloody armed campaign
for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish-populated
southeast.
His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002
after Turkey abolished capital punishment as part of
reforms to boost its bid to join the European Union.
Last year, Ankara introduced restrictions on
Ocalan's meetings with his lawyers, whom it accused
of carrying orders from the rebel leader to his
militants who have recently stepped up their armed
campaign.
AFP
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