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Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan did not receive
a fair trial in Turkey, Europe’s top human rights
court ruled today in a decision that will put
pressure on Ankara to grant the country’s most
famous prisoner a new trial.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that
Turkish authorities breached international treaties
by denying Ocalan the right to a fair and
independent trial and barring his legal
representative from contacting him after he was
detained.
The European court’s rulings are binding on all 46
members of the Council of Europe, the continent’s
top human rights watchdog.
The verdict, issued by the court’s Grand Chamber, is
final and cannot be appealed. It must be formally
confirmed by the Council, which will then order
Turkey to find remedy.
Turkish authorities blame Ocalan, who was arrested
in Kenya in a cover-up operation six years ago, for
leading the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in its
15-year-old battle for Kurdish autonomy, a conflict
that left 37,000 people dead in Turkey’s largely
Kurdish southeast.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by
Turkey and the US State Department.
Ocalan took his human rights case to Strasbourg
after he was tried, convicted and sentenced to
death. The sentence was commuted to life in prison
in 2002 when Turkey abolished capital punishment.
A lower chamber of the European court had ruled
partially in Ocalan’s favour in 2003, agreeing with
him that his 1999 treason sentence came “at the
outcome of an unfair trial”.
Ocalan complained that one of the judges of the
Ankara State Security Court was a military judge,
the judges were influenced by hostile media reports
and his lawyers were not given sufficient access to
the court file to enable them to prepare his defence
properly.
Both Ocalan’s lawyers and the Turkish government
then requested the case go to the Grand Chamber.
The case has been problematic for the Turkish
government, which wants to live up to European human
rights standards while dealing with Kurdish
militants seeking autonomy.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s foreign minister said Ocalan
“would get the same punishment even if tried 100
times,” should the human rights court demand his
retrial.
“Everyone should know that the head of a terrorist
organisation, which has committed crimes that are
known to the world, would get the same punishment
even if tried 100 times,” Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul said.
A day later, General Hursit Tolon, a senior military
commander, insisted that Ocalan’s trial and
punishment were fair.
“The trials were conducted in line with our
constitution, our laws,” he said.
www.scotsman.com
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