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Ocalan sees no chance of fair retrial,
boycots meetings with lawyers
8.6.2005
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ISTANBUL, June 8 (AFP) - 15h02 - Jailed Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan sees no prospect of
being given a fair retrial in Turkey and has decided
not to see his lawyers until authorities lift
restrictions imposed on their meetings, his defense
team said Wednesday.
"Our client will not accept a retrial under these
circumstances because he believes it would not go
beyond a ploy to deceive the public opinion,"
attorney Dogan Erbas told reporters. |
Abdullah Ocalan |
The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) ruled last month that Ocalan's 1999 trial, in
which he was sentenced to death for treason, was
unfair and recommended a new trial.
Ocalan's sentence was commuted to life in prison in
2002 after Turkey abolished capital punishment as
part of reforms to boost its bid to join the
European Union.
The ECHR said the court which convicted Ocalan was
not impartial because it included a military judge
during part of the trial and that Ocalan and his
lawyers were denied the required time and facilities
to prepare their defense.
Ankara has said it will respect the ruling.
Officials, however, have stressed that a possible
retrial will be aimed only at correcting the
procedural flaws mentioned by the ECHR and cannot
result in a lighter verdict for the rebel leader.
Such statements "have breached in advance the
condition of a trial by an independent and impartial
court," Erbas charged.
Ocalan is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK), considered a terrorist organization by Ankara
as well as the EU and the United States, which waged
a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the
southeast between 1984 and 1999. The conflict has
claimed some 37,000 lives.
Ocalan was also frustrated with the presence of a
prison official at his latest meeting with his
lawyers on June 1 following the introduction of a
new law that paved the way for authorities to impose
such restrictions, Erbas said.
"In line with our client's demand, we will not go to
see him as long as the current practice persists,"
he said.
Ocalan's attorneys are accused of acting as
intermediaries between Ocalan and his militants, who
last year ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire
with Ankara on the grounds that reforms aimed at
expanding Kurdish freedoms were insufficient.
Erbas said they would ask the Council of Europe, the
pan-European body to which the ECHR belongs, to put
pressure on Ankara to ensure a fair retrial for
their client.
"Ocalan has said he will agree to be retried if the
conditions of an independent and impartial trial are
ensured," he said.
AFP
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