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Formulario di lettera da inviare al Comitato dei Ministri del Consiglio d’Europa, alla Corte Europea dei Diritti dell’Uomo ed al Comitato Europeo per la Prevenzione della Tortura, in difesa di Abdullah Ocalan, detenuto in totale isolamento nella prigione di Imrali in Turchia. |
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Roma, 11 febbraio 2003 To the COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS
OF THE COUNCIL OF
EUROPE
To the
EUROPEAN COURT
To the EUROPEAN COMMITTEE
Concern about Mr. Ocalan health conditions after 10 weeks of total isolation
Dear Sir/Madams, as you know the KADEK president Abdullah Öcalan was abducted from Kenya on 15 February 1999, taken to Turkey and, after being put in the prison on İmralı island, was sentenced to death. Subsequently, due to Turkey’s harmonisation with the European Union, the death penalty was abolished and commuted to life imprisonment. Öcalan is still in this prison, being held in solitary confinement. After he had been taken to Turkey Öcalan made an individual application to the European Court of Human Rights through his legal representatives. This application was declared admissible as regards violations of articles 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18 and 34 on 14 December 2000. The European Court of Human Rights has made interim judgments regarding this application on 4 March 1999 and 30 November 1999 and is expected to make its final decision soon. In the meantime, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has carried out two visits to İmralı island to examine in situ the conditions under which Öcalan is being held, on 2 March 1999 and 14 September 2001. The CPT subsequently sent its findings and recommendations to the Council of Europe and the Turkish Government. In both reports, which were subsequently made public, the CPT pointed out that for Öcalan to be held further in solitary confinement would constitute a physical and psychological threat and recommended that these conditions should be changed as soon as possible. It further recommended that Öcalan, like other convicted prisoners, should be granted the right to speak to his lawyers and family by telephone, be given a television, taken outside at certain times of the day for exercise and remove the constant surveillance to which he is subjected in the cell where he lives. However, the Turkish Government’s, in its reply to the report of the CPT visit of 2001, has not made a positive response to the recommendations made by the CPT. Despite the fact that Öcalan had been granted one day a week visit from his lawyers and a once a month visit from his family, no visits have materialised for 10 weeks on the grounds of “adverse climatic conditions”. Öcalan’s lawyers have been taken to the island in an old, unreliable vessel, while it would be possible to reach the island using more modern forms of transport with no regard to climatic conditions. Despite the fact that his lawyers have made repeated requests along these lines, the Turkish Government has ignored them. Turkey is also refusing to permit contact by telephone that would remove concerns regarding Öcalan’s health due to the lack of contact for 10 weeks. Therefore we, as Italian lawyers of Mr. Ocalan in the trial which ended with the decision of the Rome Civil Tribunal n.18188 of 1 October 1999 granting Mr. Ocalan full right of political asylum in Italy, ask urgently: A) the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to meet urgently and pass resolutions reminding the Turkish Government of its responsibilities and issuing the necessary warnings; B) the CPT to visit Öcalan again as a matter of urgency, and anyway to pursue its demands regarding Öcalan’s solitary confinement, for him to be given access to telephone contact with his lawyers and family and to be provided with a television, and to urge the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to pass a resolution against Turkey in this regard; C) the European Court of Human Rights to notify the Turkish Government its concerns, and request a prompt reply, about Mr. Ocalan’s health conditions after 10 weeks of denied visits in Imrali island, to remind the Turkish Government of interim judgments in this case, and pass the necessary resolutions in order to prevent the violation of the applicant’s right to a defence, by allowing his lawyers to travel to the island by helicopter.
Firma dell’avvocato italiano |
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