|
Turkey preventing visits to jailed Kurdish
leader: lawyer
4.11.2005
|
|
|
|
ANKARA, Nov 3 (AFP)
- Turkish authorities have not allowed lawyers for
jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to visit
him for several weeks, one of his defence team told
AFP Thursday.
"For weeks we have not been able to visit our
client," said Aysel Tugluk.
Ocalan, who heads the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party
(PKK), is serving a life sentence on the
north-western island of Imrali for "separatism" and
"treason".
The authorities "gave excuses like bad weather" to
turn down requests to visit Imrali by boat, the only
means of access to the island where Ocalan is the
sole prisoner, Tugluk said.
Lawyers have not visited him since June 1.
At first the lawyers refused to visit the prison
island, complaining of "anti-democratic" practices
after the Turkish authorities recorded one of their
meetings with Ocalan under a new penal code.
"But (then) we decided to talk to our client to
discuss his defence," Tugluk said.
Ocalan's sister and brother were able to visit him
Wednesday for the first time in more than two
months, the lawyer added.
The rebel leader, captured in 1999, is officially
allowed an hour's audience a week with a team of
lawyers.
On May 12 the European Court of Human Rights said
Ocalan had not received a fair trial in Turkey and
called on Ankara to hold a fresh trial.
However Ocalan has said, through his lawyers, that
he will not agree to a new trial in Turkey, where
impartiality cannot be assured.
AFP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 