International Initiative
Freedom for Ocalan Peace in Kurdistan
P.O. Box 100511, D-50445 Koeln
Telephone: +49 221 130 15 59
Fax: +49 221 139 30 71
E-Mail: info@freedom-for-ocalan.com
Url: www.freedom-for-ocalan.com
Cologne, June 2000
INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE BRIEFINGS:
Amnesty International urges
Turkish authorities to end Ocalan solitary confinement
Amnesty International urges Turkish authorities to end Ocalan solitary
confinement Amnesty International wrote today to the Turkish Prime
Minister, on the first anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence,
to raise concern over his solitary confinement in a prison on the
Turkish island of Imrali. Abdullah Ocalan leader of the armed opposition
group Kurdistan Workers' Party has been held in solitary confinement
for 16 months since his apprehension on 15 February 1999. The human
rights organization is concerned that this may constitute cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment.
It understands that his lawyers' recent application for him to
be transferred to another prison has been rejected. Amnesty International
has been informed by Abdullah Ocalan's lawyers that he is kept in
a 13 square metre cell with toilet and shower in the same room.
He is reportedly allowed outside for one hour twice a day into an
area measuring 40 square metres. This area is surrounded by very
high walls and is covered at the top with wire netting. He is under
continuous observation by the prison guards, with video cameras
both inside and outside his cell. He is reportedly permitted to
meet his lawyers once a week for one hour and his immediate family
once a month for one hour, despite the fact that according to the
law he is entitled to see his relatives for one hour a week. He
is allowed limited access to newspapers and magazines, has a radio
access to the official radio station only, and no television. Most
of the books brought to him by his lawyers are given to him, but
according to Amnesty International's information very few of the
letters and cards sent to him are given to him.
Amnesty International believes that prolonged solitary confinement
may have serious effects on the physical and mental health of prisoners.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its General Comment
No. 20 (44), paragraph 6, has made clear that prolonged solitary
confinement of the detained or imprisoned person may amount to acts
prohibited under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR), that is, cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or even torture. Turkey has not yet signed the ICCPR,
but is party to the European Convention on Human Rights which in
Article 3 prohibits torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment. In 1997 the UN Committee against Torture recommended
that "Except in exceptional circumstances, inter alia, when
the safety of persons or property is involved, the use of solitary
confinement be abolished, particularly during pre-trial detention,
or at least that it should be strictly and specifically regulated
by law (maximum duration, etc.) and that judicial supervision should
be introduced." A delegation of the European Committee for
the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT) which visited Abdullah Ocalan on 2 March 1999 stated
that "additional measures are required to counter the potentially
negative effects on Mr Ocalan's mental health of being held on his
own in a remote location under a high security regime. Those measures
relate... to his possibilities for contact with the outside world
and the precise nature of the regime applied to him... should gradually
be rendered less restrictive."
The CPT stressed that prisoners who present a particularly high
security risk should, within the confines of their special unit,
enjoy a relaxed regime (able to mix freely with fellow prisoners
in the unit; allowed to move without restriction within what is
likely to be a relatively small physical space, granted a good deal
of choice about activities, etc.) by way of compensation for their
severe custodial situation. Since February 1999 there have been
no other prisoners on the island with whom Abdullah Ocalan can associate.
"We urge the Turkish authorities to ensure that all possible
steps are taken to provide Abdullah Ocalan with social contact with
other prisoners and that other measures are taken to alleviate the
possible adverse physical and psychological effects of prolonged
solitary confinement." Amnesty International said.
Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1 Easton Street,
WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom
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