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ANKARA, May 12 (AFP) - 11h27 - Turkey will take
the necessary legal steps to address the flaws the
European Court of Human Rights has found in the 1999
conviction of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan,
a senior ruling party official said Wednesday.
"The Turkish Republic is a state based on the rule
of law and will undertake the procedures that the
law requires," Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, deputy
chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP),
told reporters.
He was speaking shortly after the Strasbourg-based
court said Ocalan's trial in 1999 was unfair and
called for a retrial. The court's ruling is not
binding on the government.
Firat said Turkish judicial authorities would decide
how to proceed with the case, adding that the
lengthy procedure might require amendments in some
laws.
He stressed that the objections of the European
court pertained only to procedural flaws and did not
contest the essence of the verdict, which condemned
Ocalan to death for treason and separatism.
Ocalan's sentence was commuted to life in prison in
2002, after Turkey scrapped the death penalty in a
bid to boost its bid to join the European Union.
"The retrial, if there is going to be one, will be
only procedural," Firat said.
He explained that the issue would be discussed at
the Commitee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,
which verifies whether states in violation have
taken measures to comply with obligations required
by the judgements of the European Court of Human
Rights.
"We understand that this process can take as long as
a year," Firat said. "The AKP government will
undertake all the political efforts required."
AFP
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