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ANKARA, July 15 (AFP) - 16h12 - Lawyers
representing Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned Kurdish
separatist leader, announced on Friday that they had
discontinued visits with their client on grounds
that conditions of his detention were
"anti-democratic".
"We haven't seen him since June 1," said Bekir Kaya
of the Istanbul-based law firm representing the head
of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Kaya explained that Ocalan and his lawyers had
decided to stop weekly visits after their early June
meeting was recorded by an official from the Turkish
justice ministry, in accordance with provisions of a
newly-adopted law.
Turkey sentenced the rebel leader to death for
treason in 1999, but later commuted his sentence to
life imprisonment after Turkey scrapped the death
penalty to bolster its bid to enter the EU. In May,
the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights
ruled that Ocalan's trial had been unfair due to the
presence of a military judge on the panel, and
recommended a retrial.
Ankara has said that it would respect the European
court's ruling, but that any possible retrial would
aim only at correcting procedural flaws rather than
resulting in a lighter sentence.
Through his lawyers, Ocalan has indicated that he is
refusing retrial on the grounds that the
impartiality of Turkish courts could not be assured.
Ocalan must put forward a petition in order for his
case to be retried.
While the Strasbourg court's decision is
non-binding, European officials have bluntly
reminded Turkey that it must abide by EU
institutions and values if it hopes to succeed in
membership talks scheduled for later this year. EU
Council ministers must now decide with Turkey upon
next steps in the Ocalan case.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by
Ankara as well as by the European Union and the
United States. The blood-soaked Kurdish conflict in
Turkey has resulted in some 37,000 deaths since the
separatist movement started in 1984.
Ocalan is largely loathed in Turkey, where many are
concerned that his retrial could fuel the flames of
rising nationalist sentiment or rekindle rebel
activity, which has been on the rise since a
five-year unilateral truce was called off last year.
AFP
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