On Monday 16 September a press conference at the Brussels Press Club will formally announce the application by over 1500 lawyers, from more than thirty countries, to visit Abdullah Öcalan and the other three prisoners in İmralı Island Prison. The lawyers have sent a letter to Turkey’s Ministry of Justice protesting the restrictions on Öcalan’s right of access to his lawyers, and have submitted their application to visit the prison in accordance with Turkish law.
The situation in the prison has been described by lawyers worldwide as a special and discriminatory form of isolation. Furthermore, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has warned that solitary confinement itself potentially raises issues in relation to the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
The press conference is jointly organized by the Brussels Bar Association, the Human Rights Institute of the Brussels Bar, ELDH, AED and MAF-DAD
It will be addressed by
➢ Heike GEISWEID, Co-president of Association for Democracy and International Law (MAF-DAD)
➢ Hélène DEBATY, President of Syndicat des Avocats pour la Démocratie : le SAD, European Democratic Lawyers, (AED)
➢ Thomas SCHMIDT, Co-Secretary General of European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights (ELDH)
➢ Yves OSCHINSKY, Brussels Bar Association and the Human Rights Institute of the Brussels Bar.
Details are given below, and a pdf invitation can be downloaded here.
Date: 16 September 2024,
Time: 11.00 am
Location: Press Club Brussels Europe
Rue Froissart 95, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium