Veysi Aktaş Released After 31 Years in Prison
Longtime confidant of Abdullah Öcalan walks free from İmralı Island after decades behind bars.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Veysi Aktaş, one of the long-imprisoned inmates of Türkiye’s high-security İmralı Island Prison and a close associate of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, was released on Friday, after serving a sentence of 31 years and three months.
According to media sources close to the PKK, Aktaş was transferred to İmralı in 2015, where he spent the last ten years in proximity to Ocalan and was later identified as a member of the leader’s inner secretariat.
Key Figure in the “Peace Process”
During Türkiye’s “peace process” initiative, Aktaş appeared publicly on two occasions. His first appearance was on Feb. 27, 2025, when he delivered a message on behalf of Ocalan. The second was on July 9 of the same year, during the release of new video footage featuring the PKK leader.
Born in Diyarbakir, Aktaş was arrested in 1994 on charges of “attempting to secede part of the state's territory” and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Sentence Completed Despite Delay
While his prison term was legally scheduled to conclude on Apr. 28, 2024, his release was postponed for a year by the İmralı Prison Directorate and its Supervisory Board, in accordance with discretionary legal provisions.
Aktaş's release marks the end of a decades-long incarceration and comes amid renewed public attention on İmralı and the broader Kurdish question in Türkiye.
