This meeting notes that on Wednesday 20 March 2019 the Welsh Assembly voted in favour of a motion that requested the Welsh Government write to the European Committee for the prevention of torture (CPT) and ask that they reopen their investigation into the treatment of political prisoner Abdullah Öcalan who has been held in extreme isolation on Imrali Island for 20 years.
The conditions in which Mr Öcalan are kept have been described as torture and they break the conventions of the UN recognised Mandela rules for the ethical treatment of prisoners.
Turkey’s own laws allow for weekly visits from Mr Öcalan’s legal team. Requests from his legal team are either refused or ignored and so they have had no contact with Mr Öcalan since July 2011.
This is the context in which Newport resident Imam Sis chose to enter into what is now the longest hunger strike in UK history. Imam has been joined by three residents from Haringey who are part of an international protest. We do not have long to avoid a tragedy that will further compound this injustice.
This meeting is deeply concerned for the wellbeing of the hunger strikers in the UK, Europe and Turkey and we wish to express our solidarity in their simple and just demands that both the CPT and the Turkish state fulfil its legal duties.
This meeting asks that this branch/constituency/council apply all possible pressure on the London Assembly members, MPs and the Mayor’s office to use their influence to call on the CPT to reopen investigations into Imrali Island and for the Turkish state to fulfil its legal obligations in the treatment of Mr Öcalan and all political prisoners.