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Kurdish rebel leader Ocalan says no
possibility of fair retrial in Turkey
3.6.2005
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ANKARA, June 3 (AFP) - 11h44 - Jailed Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan does not want to be
retried in Turkey, where he believes he cannot be
judged fairly, one of his attorneys told AFP Friday.
"My client does not want to be retried in Turkey. He
does not want to be judged under the current
circumstances," said Aysel Tugluk, who met with
Ocalan Wednesday in the island prison of Imrali,
where he is serving a life sentence for treason.
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Abdullah Ocalan |
Last month the European court of Human Rights ruled
that the Kurdish leader should be retried on grounds
that his 1999 trial, in which he was sentenced to
death for treason, was unfair. That sentenced was
commuted to life in prison in 2002.
Turkish authorities said they would abide by the
European court ruling.
But in order for a new trial to take place Ocalan
must request it and he has refused to do so on
grounds he would not receive a fair trial in Turkey,
Tugluk said.
"Ocalan has said that he refuses to play the main
role in a play orchestrated by Turkey," she added,
pointing out that Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul had
said that the Kurdish leader was likely to receive
the same sentence if judged "100 times".
Tugluk said Ocalan would like a retrial to take
place outside of Turkey and under the auspices of a
special tribunal set up by the Council of Europe.
That court could be similar to the one in The Hague
which is currently judging former Yugoslav strongman
Slobodan Milosevic.
Ocalan's PKK led a bloody armed campaign for Kurdish
self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast between
1984 and 1999 before announcing a unilateral
ceasefire to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the
conflict.
The group called off the truce last year on the
grounds that democratic reforms undertaken by Ankara
to expand Kurdish rights were insufficient.
AFP
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