Turkish authorities have prevented jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan from seeing his lawyers and family members for the past two years on the grounds of consecutive “disciplinary punishments.” Ocalan, who since 1999 has been serving a life sentence at the Imrali prison island off the coast of Istanbul, was most recently barred from outside contact reportedly because he chatted with his fellow inmates during the physical exercise period. According to Kurdish politicians, the ban reflects Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drift away from the democratic process, which aimed to solve Turkey’s decadeslong Kurdish problem via peaceful means.

Ocalan’s isolation has come into public focus following the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers meeting on Dec. 2, during which the European human rights watchdog decided to initiate infringement proceedings against Turkey over the detention for over four years of Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala. During the meeting, the European body also asked Ankara for information on what steps were taken to put into place a mechanism to review life sentences in Turkey. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that sentences of life imprisonment without a chance for parole should not be turned into a torture mechanism, calling on Ankara to put into place a review mechanism for convicts serving lifelong sentences. 

“Turkey should immediately do something on this issue," Ibrahim Bilmez, one of Ocalan’s lawyers, told Al-Monitor, pointing out the January 2022 deadline set by the Council of Europe for Turkey to respond the information request.

While Ocalan's release from prison appears out of question for now, his treatment there continues to draw criticism and his family members worry about his well being.