International Initiative
Freedom for Ocalan – Peace in Kurdistan
E-Mail: info@freedom-for-ocalan.com
Url: www.freedom-for-ocalan.com

Cologne, 28 April 2004

INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE BRIEFINGS:
Abdullah Ocalan’s health suffers from solitary confinement

Today’s online edition of the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports that during a routine medical check two walnut-size tumours had been found on the back of Mr. Ocalan’s head.

The tumours could be excised according to Ocalan’s doctors the daily reports. The Kurdish leader, however, had rejected this according to Hurriyet. His lawyer, Ms. Aysel Tugluk, who had no contact with her client for two weeks disagreed, however. On the contrary, she said in a public statement, Mr. Ocalan had demanded such an operation earlier which had been refused by the authorities.

Moreover, it had been a long-standing demand by Mr. Ocalan to be checked by an international medical team for his real state of health. Meanwhile, the international coordinator of the French aid organisation Medicins du Monde, Dr. Bernard Granjon, said in an interview aired by the Kurdish telestation ROJ-TV that the total isolation of the Kurdish leader was more of a slow execution and must be ended immediately being completely unacceptable.

Sources: Hürriyetim online, 28 April 2004; MHA, 28 April 2004