20 years of combating torture: CPT General Report 2008-2009 High-level talks and contacts 30. The CPT continues in appropriate cases to pursue its dialogue with Parties to the ECPT and other relevant interlocutors by organising high-level talks and contacts outside the framework of a given visit. Such talks/contacts have taken place on four occasions during the period covered by this General Report. 31. From 29 September to 2 October 2008 representatives of the CPT had a series of meetings in Tbilisi and Sukhumi aimed at enabling the Committee to exercise its mandate throughout the territory of Georgia. In Tbilisi, the CPT’s representatives held talks with the Minister and Deputy Minister of Justice, the Minister of Reintegration, the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Secretary of the National Security Council. They also met the Public Defender. Similar consultations were previously held in July 2008, following the postponement, at the Georgian authorities’ request, of an intended ad hoc visit by the CPT to the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The new series of talks provided an opportunity to examine the implications of the armed conflict in August 2008, and subsequent developments, for the planned ad hoc visit. In Sukhumi, the CPT’s representatives met the de facto Presidential Plenipotentiaries for human rights of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and explained to them the Committee’s mandate and working methods. Discussions were also held with members of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia and the ICRC Delegation in Tbilisi. 32. The above-mentioned meetings helped to lay the foundations for the CPT’s subsequent visit to Abkhazia in April/May 2009 (see paragraph 25 above). Unfortunately, the Committee has not yet been able to organise a similar visit to South Ossetia. The contacts to date with the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali indicate that they are not well disposed to the idea of having the CPT exercise its mandate in the region. 33. On 13 October 2008, representatives of the CPT had talks in Ankara, Turkey, with the Minister of Justice and senior officials of the Ministries of Justice, the Interior, Foreign Affairs and National Defence as well as representatives of the Turkish Armed Forces. Issues discussed during the talks included the conditions of detention of Abdullah Öcalan, who has now been held for more than ten years as the sole inmate of the prison on the island of Imralı. The CPT is pleased to note that access to Imralı island for the relatives and lawyers of the prisoner has improved in recent times. The Committee is following closely the announced plans to transfer a number of other prisoners to the prison on the island. The CPT’s representatives also raised at the talks certain allegations of illtreatment of detained persons by law enforcement officials and prison officers that had recently been reported, as well as the situation of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation. 18