[Editor's note: Abdullah Ocalan was abducted on February 15, 1999 from Kenya to Turkey. Yesterday, February 26, 1999, two lawyers were allowed to meet with Ocalan for the first time. Their statement follows.]

Dear Members of the Press,

As lawyers representing Abdullah Ocalan, after stringent efforts for a week (on 25 February 1999) we finally went to Imrali Island where our client is held. Because of the importance of this case, we wish to enlighten the public through your valuable offices of the press with regard to the pressing problems we are faced with this in period of time.

As far as we are concerned, in the past week, there have been grave infringements of the law, both with regard to our client and to the defense procedure since the undertaking of our role as defense lawyers. We can detail these as follows:

1) The first and foremost infringement of the law concerns where Abdullah Ocalan's is being detained. As a consequence of our initiatives over the past days, we finally grasped the opportunity to meet with Abdullah Ocalan face to face. For our part, according to the law, we had expected to see Abdullah Ocalan in a prison under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice but found him in an interrogation room.

Yes, indeed, according to the code of law governing the reason for this detention, whereas he ought to have been detained in prison, we found him still to be under intensive interrogation.

Yesterday, we were only able to see Abdullah Ocalan in an interrogation room, not in the prison, in the presence of two persons wearing snow masks (balaclavas) dressed in military uniform. With your permission, we would like to explain this grave situation in detail.

The external security of the prison was provided by the jandarmary. There is nothing unusual about this. However, when we entered the building where Abdullah Ocalan is being kept we fully expected to be received by civil servants and guards under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. While soldiers are responsible for external security of the prison, it is forbidden for them to enter the prison except together with the Public Prosecutor for the purposes of carrying out a search inside the prison, or again under the Public Prosecutor's supervision to undertake an operation to contain a rebellion. However, as we stated above we were met by soldiers in balaclavas. Even more grave than this, where by law it is required that we meet one to one (in some circumstances an appointed judge can also be present) these military interrogators in balaclavas were also in attendance.

From the moment that we went into the prison with the Mudanya Criminal Judge and encountered the soldiers in balaclavas it was necessary for us to abandon this location. However, due to the great concern for news regarding the client Abdullah Ocalan's condition of health, we did not press for this legal requirement. We located Ocalan on the second floor in an approximate area of some 5-6 metres with a bed, a plastic table and a number of chairs. After we had identified ourselves and explained the reason for our presence there and had begun the visit in the presence of the judge, we observed that the two persons in balaclavas were inside. We told the judge that they were required to go outside. The judge found our request to be in order and relayed our request to those in the masks. They replied in this fashion: We are under order of the General Staff. Our duty is to guarantee the security of the accused. We receive our orders from the Chief of Staff. For this reason it is not possible for us to leave.2 I requested that this particular point was taken down in writing. The minute was taken.

One of the masked interrogators sat behind Abdullah Ocalan, the other across the able behind the two of us lawyers, constantly staring us in the eyes. For this reason, Abdullah Ocalan's eyes were kept from meeting ours. From this point on the questioning of Abdullah Ocalan reached an impasse. The environment for the interview in which we found ourselves, the statements taken were prepared and the execution of the required claims of defense were obstructed. The role played by the Ankara State Security Court Prosecution in infringement of the law, in a ready interview is considerable. The Prosecutor did not take his statement down according to the prosecution but in an interrogation room and when carrying out the first police interview after his arrest, it was necessary for the Prosecutor to be responsible. For this reason, before any more time should be allowed to lapse, it is necessary that the Ankara State Security Court should be relieved of carrying out the preparatory hearing and that this duty be transferred to a different regional prosecution on the grounds of their having undertaken an illegal hearing, and by the same provision, for having moreover performed this hearing in secret and for having been exposed in so doing, in contravention of the law. We are not of the view that Abdullah Ocalan's off-the- cuff statement has yet been brought to completion and taken down in writing. During a period of constant interrogation, it is unavoidable that every day new additions will be made to Abdullah Ocalan's statement. In this situation this procedure will allow for judgment and as seen fit, "new declarations" will be made public, powers at home and abroad, organizations, voluntary sector associations, and individuals will be damned. By this process, even ourselves, acting as his representatives can be expected to be drawn into the net of accusations.

We suspect that details of the interrogation of the Ankara State Security Court Prosecutor which appeared in the newspapers also took place in the presence of the same masked interrogators.

In the course of our visit we encountered yet another grave situation with regard to the decision given for us to conduct the visit in the presence of the Mudanya Criminal Court Judge relying on the law of the Justice Ministry. We do not appeal against this decision by the Ministry of Justice. However, the role of the judge was to invoke a law to prohibit us from talking or sharing an exchange, and so forth during the visit, and if he should so choose to call a halt to the visit. Moreover, in addition to this, in direct contravention to the law, the judge brought a minutes notebook and set about taking down our visit as minutes. Under normal circumstances, apart from noting the commencement and termination of the interview between the accused and his lawyers to be minuted and this contravenes the principles of "confidential interview" and "the right to defense".

We found ourselves face to face with a conspiracy. It had already been planned that flagrant disregard for law, despite being arrested, our client forcibly detained in interrogation rooms instead of in a prison, would be subjected to having his interview with us minuted and that this would be turned into an interview what we be made to sign.

When we said that the judge had committed a crime, and that the interview would not be minuted, that taking the one page minute sheet as an illegal document, in the role of defense lawyers we left the visiting area.

From what we saw, a plot has been hatched around Abdullah Ocalan and so as to carry out this plot, all unlawful practices are considered justified. Saying that Ocalan will be tried in the shortest possible time, invoking the death penalty, holding the hearing in a glass booth are all elements of this plot.

Our second anxiety concerns the life and the conditions in which Abdullah Ocalan is being kept. Although he is detention, the fact that he is under the control of interrogators serving the Chief of Staff, and that he is permitted no contact whatsoever with the outside world could lead to a deep psychological deterioration. There is also a strong probability that he could be murdered under the guise of it being suicide.

We find ourselves in a situation of grave concern in our undertaking to defend the cases concerning Abdullah Ocalan, as equally on the issue of the hearing, and as his lawyers, are being restricted and threatened from undertaking that defense.

When we sought to see Abdullah Ocalan on 22 February 1999 and 24 February 1999, on both occasions under the auspices of the Justice Ministry Ankara State Security Court Prosecution and the Mudanya Republic Prosecution, our meetings were prevented and as a consequence we find ourselves up against unlawful procedures.

When on 22 February 1999 we went to Mudanya and applied from the outside to the Public Prosecutor we were unable to find a single responsible official able to accord us the lawful right to meet with our client and our request was refused as the officials would not do their duty but said "this matter does not concern us". Immediately, all the officials claimed that our request was a matter for the "crisis desk", however when we asked them the whereabouts of this "crisis desk" they returned the answer, "we don't know".

Added to this situation, wherever we went, we were attacked by a mob formed mostly from the ranks of the plainclothes police. On 24 February 1999 such an attack was carried out. Footage of the attack has been broadcast for days on end on television. The aim was to deprive us of our duty to perform the defense. Like Abdullah Ocalan, we, entrusted with public duty as his lawyers, found our lives in grave jeopardy.

For this reason, we are unable to venture outside into the street. In the apartments in which we live, everyone shuts the door in our faces. We are receiving death threats. These are not confined purely to ourselves but our relatives are also under threat. My son, when asked by his friends "what relation are you to Ahmet Zeki Okcuoglu?" replied "I don't know him. He's no close relative of mine." Another distant relative of mine standing as a CHP candidate for the Chair of Beyoglu City Council, had to withdraw his candidacy on my account. It is not only us who are receiving threats but everyone with the same surnames, 'Okcuoglu' and 'Korkut' who are in danger.

Where the President should be responsible to take action to remove the threat posed to us, people minded to disregard the law are instead emboldened to attack us. We went to Mudanya with the assurance given to us by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, but came under attack instead. Not one single official raised a finger to prevent us from being attacked nor brought to justice those who carried out the offense. At any moment we can suffer further attacks or even be killed. Worst of all we do not even know what we can do about it. In this situation, it is not possible to find a means to guarantee the carriage of justice, nor the fulfillment of the sacred duty of defense.

In order for us to carry out the task of defense the following particulars need to be performed.

1) Our client Abdullah Ocalan must immediately be released from the environment of interrogation, placed in a normal prison and all obstacles to a defense made by his own free will, be removed. Anyone obstructing justice in this way must be punished.

2) All threats to ourselves, as the lawyers of Abdullah Ocalan, and towards anyone bearing the same surnames as ours, must be prevented and whoever makes such threats should be punished.

3) One of the greatest threats to Abdullah Ocalan receiving a fair sentence are those engendered by the media. Such reporting must be prevented and those prejudicing the fairness of the hearing in this way must be punished. We call upon everybody concerned to take action without delay in stopping threats being directed against ourselves and our client.

IF OUR REQUESTS ARE NOT MET, TOMORROW MAY BE TOO LATE

Lawyer: Ahmed Zeki Okcuoglu Lawyer: Hatice Korkut