Roj Bash Kurdistan

Is Ocalan alive?

Social media is alive with this very question

I have no idea what the answer is

We do know that when Ocalan was arrested, he already had heart problems

Initially Ocalan was treated very badly, beaten and tortured, isolated and deprived of all social interaction

Ocalan was not allowed access to newspapers or internet

Both his mental and psychical health must have deteriorated considerably over the years

Now people are asking the question:

Is Ocalan dead?

If you know the answer please let us know

Ocalan wants face-to-face meetings

Abdullah Ocalan, angered by phone call with family has said that speaking with them on the phone is “wrong” and “illegal,” requesting face-to-face meetings, his elder brother told Rudaw on Friday

After nearly a year of no contact, Ocalan spoke on the phone with brother Mehmet on Thursday. This followed recent rumours that Ocalan had died in jail.

“The phone call was very short. It lasted for four to five minutes,” Mehmet told Rudaw’s Hawraz Gulpy via phone late Friday.

Mehmet spoke with his brother from Sanliurfa (Riha) prosecutor’s office.

“Ocalan asked, ‘How did you get here? Who brought you? Who asked you to come?’ I told him that I had come with a lawyer and Omer [Mehmet’s son] upon the invitation of the [prison] manager,” Mehmet told Rudaw.

“He said ‘what the state is doing is not legal or right' … he said that the meetings should be face-to-face.”

The PKK leader was imprisoned following his arrest in Nairobi in 1999. He was tracked down in the Kenyan capital after being expelled from Syria, where he was based from 1979 to 1998.

The leader is rarely granted meetings with his lawyers or family. His last face-to-face meeting with Mehmet was on March 3, 2020 following reports of a fire near the prison in which he is held.

Ocalan’s previous contact with Mehmet was via phone on April 27, 2020.

Asrin Law Office, which represents Ocalan, said on Thursday that its lawyers have not been able to meet the PKK leader since August 7, 2019.

“We applied every single day for a face-to-face conversation, which is a legal right,” it said on Twitter.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /260320213