MERSİN - ÖHD Mersin Branch has applied to Mersin Bar Association, requesting that PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan take steps to remove the ban of lawyers.

 

The Mersin Branch of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) applied to the Mersin Bar Association after being blocked from meeting with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım, who have been held in İmralı Type F High Security Prison and have not been heard from for 20 months. ÖHD Mersin Branch made a statement regarding their application at the buildings of the association. In the statement where the banner "Isolation is a crime against humanity" was opened, the press text was read by Lawyer Sebahat Gençtarih.

 

Stating that there are severe isolation conditions in Imrali, no news has been heard from Öcalan, Konar, Aktaş and Yıldırım despite all efforts for over a year, Gençtarih said: "The unlawful isolation in Imrali is also Turkey's most structural problem. Being aware of the fact that it means a deadlock in the Kurdish question, as lawyers from ÖHD, we have taken various initiatives to prevent this black hole from getting bigger and spreading further into society. We made a statement to the press with the signatures of 768 colleagues, including lawyers from various institutions and bar associations, in the campaign against the isolation initiated under our leadership in May 2021. Shortly after that, we made a joint application to the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to end the Isolation, together with institutions such as ÇHD, İHD, CİSST, TİHV, TOHAV. Again, our Co-Chairs have applied to the Ministry of Justice in recent months in order to both discuss the isolation and hold a lawyer meeting in İmralı. Finally, the three largest legal organisations in Europe, ELDH, AED and Lawyers for Lawyers, applied to the CPT on the occasion of the lawyers' day on April 5, 2022  with our initiatives in order to take action against the isolation and to pay a visit to İmralı and this was announced to the public. Finally, on June 10, 2022, we applied to the Ministry with 775 lawyers to have a meeting between June 10-17, against unfair lawyer vision barriers. Even though it has been more than 5 months, no response has been given to our application. We invited all Bar Associations, especially the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, to fulfill their duty as a lawyer and to ensure the clients' right to a fair trial."

 

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