Thank you for your reading and interest in the news PKK leader Ocalan's jail restriction 'unacceptable', says anti-torture group and now with details
Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - Restrictions imposed on Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and a handful of other inmates at a Turkish island prison are not acceptable, an anti-torture group said on Wednesday, urging he be granted more outside contact and less solitary confinement.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) founder, who was initially sentenced to death after his capture by Turkey in 1999 and then to life imprisonment, is jailed on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara off Istanbul.
According to the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee's report on a 2019 visit to Turkey, which included rare access to Imrali, he is one of just four prisoners on the island.
The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) spoke to all prisoners and said they were treated "correctly" by prison warders, will no allegations of ill-treatment, while healthcare also appeared good.
But it said the regime the prisoners were under had not improved "at all" since the last such visit in 2016.
A health worker takes a break outside Medellin's General Hospital in Medellin, Colombia. AFP
A clown wearing face mask poses for a picture before performing at Puente Piedra district, in the northern outskirts of Lima. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, circuses in Peru remain closed. AFP
Researchers work at the Institute for Scientific Research and High Technology Services, in Panama City, Panama. Scientists from Panama, Japan and India are studying the benefits of a food supplement derived from a Japanese fungus to strengthen the immune system of patients with Covid-19. EPA
People gather for a protest against plans to reopen schools in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in New York. EPA
An Indonesian pupil uses a smartphone while being home schooled by his mother, in Depok, West Java, Indonesia. EPA
Stranded workers wait for shuttle services following the suspension of mass transportation on the first day of the government's reimplementation of a stricter lockdown to curb Covid-19 infections in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Reuters
A woman conducts a spiritual cleansing on a client looking to improve her health and her economic situation due to the coronavirus outbreak, at the Sonora market, in Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters
Journalists interview a Spanish tourist upon arrival at Juan Santamaria airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, on the first commercial flight since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. EPA
Merchants chat in La Vega market in Santiago, Chile. AP Photo
US President Donald Trump leaves a Covid-19 pandemic briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. Reuters
Jasmine Paolini of Italy touches rackets with Daria Kasatkina of Russia after their singles match during the 31st Palermo Ladies Open - Day One in Palermo, Italy. Getty Images
A man walks into an isolation ward to collect his belongings after recovering from Covid-19 in Machakos, Kenya. EPA
A restaurant offering take away food remains open during curfew in Fitzroy suburb in Melbourne, Australia. Bloomberg
It said the four prisoners were still only allowed to meet as a group for six hours per week, and in pairs for another three hours per week, while association during daily outdoor exercise remained prohibited.
"As a result, all prisoners were being held in solitary confinement for most of the time," it said, noting this amounted to 159 hours out of 168 hours per week, including 24 hours per day at weekends.
"In the committee's view, such a state of affairs is not acceptable."
The CPT lamented an almost total absence of family visits in recent years to Ocalan and the turning down of requests for visits from his lawyers since 2019.
"A balance must be struck between such security considerations and the basic human rights of the prisoners concerned," it said, calling for a "sustainable system" of regular visits by family members and lawyers at Imrali.
Ocalan – like hundreds of convicts jailed in the wake of a failed 2016 coup bid – is serving what Turkey calls an aggravated life sentence, a life prison term with added restrictions on the jail routine.
But the CPT said that "the underlying concept of the detention regime of persons sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment is fundamentally flawed", urging a "complete overhaul" of the detention regime for such prisoners.
Ocalan was captured in 1999 by Turkey's secret service in Kenya and sentenced to death, although the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002 when Turkey abolished the death penalty.
The PKK, regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and United States, has since 1984 waged an insurrection for greater rights for the Kurdish minority that has left tens of thousands dead.
It declared a ceasefire in 2013 but this collapsed two years later. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled out any new dialogue.
Updated: August 5, 2020 07:32 AM
These were the details of the news PKK leader Ocalan's jail restriction 'unacceptable', says anti-torture group for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at The National and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
