NEWS CENTER - Stating that it cannot disclose a report without the consent of the member states, the CPT has the authority to make a statement in case of non-compliance with the recommendations. The CPT, which has many statements on Greece, Russia and Bulgaria, refrains from making a statement on Turkey despite the intensifying isolation.

 

The Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) announced on October 3 that it visited Turkey between September 20-29 and that İmralı Type F High Security Prison was among the institutions it visited. Answering the questions of the Mesopotamia Agency (MA) about the visit on October 4, Therese Rytter, the Head of the delegation, the 2nd Vice President of the CPT said: "I can say that we visited all the prisoners in Turkey, but I cannot explain our findings." Making a statement on November 29, Asrın Law Office, which is the defense attorney for Öcalan, said: "We have heard that Mr. Öcalan did not attend the meeting during the CPT's visit to İmralı Island in September 2022."

   

After the announcement, concerns have grown about the situation of Abdullah Öcalan and prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş, who have not been heard from in İmralı since March 25, 2021. Civil society and legal organisations, as well as Kurdish politics, made calls to both the government and the CPT to make a statement to address concerns; however, neither the government nor the CPT has yet made a statement on the subject.

 

The CPT bases its non-publishing of reports on violations in prisons on the principle that "it does not publish until the Government of the relevant country requests it". Lawyers state that if states do not comply with recommendations on violations, the CPT can issue a statement on these violations. Some statements made by the CPT in the past years also confirm the lawyers.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT CPT

 

The CPT is an independent monitoring body of the Council of Europe, of which 46 states are members. The CPT describes its role and mission as "visits places of detention in Council of Europe member states to see how persons deprived of their liberty are treated. Examples of places of detention include police stations, prisons, juvenile detention centres, immigrant detention centres, psychiatric hospitals or nursing homes" the party makes periodic visits to each country every 4 years. It can also make unannounced visits to member states "if it considers it necessary to monitor a serious situation".

 

CPT has unlimited access to all the places it visits and can move around without any restrictions. It can hold private conversations with people deprived of their liberty and freely communicate with anyone who can provide information. At the end of their visit, the CPT delegation meets with relevant ministers or government officials to present their preliminary observations.

 

The CPT, which has no right to process individual complaints and intervene in legal proceedings, can present individual cases to the authorities and request an investigation into allegations of ill-treatment with the consent of the person or persons concerned.

 

CPT CAN PUBLISH A REPORT IF IT WANTS TO

 

After each visit, the CPT sends a detailed report to the state with requests for advice, comments and information. The CPT requests detailed information on the measures taken to implement the recommendations made from the relevant authorities between 3 or 6 months after the report. The reports prepared by the CPT after the "secret" meetings and contacts are not released until the authorities of the relevant state demand their publication; however, in case of non-compliance with the recommendations, it has the authority to make statements on the subject, with a two-thirds majority of its members, instead of the reports it prepares.

 

While some countries allow the automatic publication of the CPT's report with its responses, Turkey is not among these countries.

 

CPT'S REPORT CARD REGARDING IMRALI

 

The CPT has always been on the agenda with its visits to Imrali in Turkey. The CPT has made a total of 25 visits to Turkey since 1999, when PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan was imprisoned in Imrali Prison with an international conspiracy. These visits of 6 were periodic visits, 1 were high-level meetings, and 18 were unannounced visits.

 

Imrali Prison was visited in 9 of these visits (1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022). In three of the other visits, the conditions in Imrali came to the fore. Reports on 6 of these visits were announced. In each report, the isolation of Öcalan in İmralı was pointed out and various rights violations were included. In addition, various recommendations were made to end the ill-treatment conditions. However, although the isolation and rights violations continued to increase, no steps were taken beyond "recommendation".

 

CPT'S ATTITUDE AND STATEMENTS DIFFER FROM COUNTRY TO COUNTRY

 

Apart from the report, the CPT made its last statement about Turkey in 1996, 3 years before Öcalan was put in İmralı. Despite the intense increase in violations of rights in prisons, especially in İmralı, since the said year and the failure to comply with the recommendations, no statement was made.

 

The Asrın Law Office made both written and oral applications to the CPT many times during this process. It was emphasized that in every application, the CPT recommendations were not followed. Political party representatives also made many statements on the subject and made calls to the CPT.

 

Asrın Law Office made a call to the CPT, pointing out that there has been no news from Imrali since March 25, 2021. CPT visited İmralı between September 20-29 after the calls; however, it turned out that the CPT did not meet with Öcalan and other prisoners.

 

The CPT, which has repeatedly made statements on Belgium, Greece, Russia and Bulgaria, which did not comply with the recommendations, refrained from making a statement on Turkey despite the intensifying isolation and the absence of news for more than 20 months.

 

MA / Azad Altay