ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Lawyers visited imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday, it was announced on Monday — his first visit in eight years.

His lawyers were permitted to visit him on Thursday, Roj News, media close to the PKK reported on Monday.

Roj News added that there will be a press conference at Taksim Hill Hotel at 3 p.m. on Monday.

On January 12, Mehmet Ocalan visited his brother, who was said to be in good health.

Although jailed, Ocalan is seen as an extremely influential Kurdish leader of the banned party.

The PKK and Turkish government began peace talks in 2013; however, they stalled in 2015.

Since then, the PKK has continued its four-decade, sometimes armed, struggle against the Turkish state — seeking greater cultural, political and minority rights in the country.

The PKK's headquarters is located in the mountainous border area, Qandil, in the Kurdistan Region on the border with Turkey and Iran.

Ocalan has been imprisoned since 1999 on Imrali Island after an international manhunt that concluded in Nairobi, Kenya. From 1979 he sheltered in Syria until being expelled by Damascus in 1998.

Rudaw