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Kurdish PKK leader Ocalan denied retrial
26.7.2006
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STRASBOURG, July
25, (AFP) , -- An Istanbul court on Tuesday upheld a
ruling denying a retrial to Abdullah Ocalan, the
jailed leader of Kurdish separatist group PKK, the
Anatolia news agency reported.
The court upheld a decision made in May to reject a
European Court of Human Rights ruling that Ocalan be
retried on the grounds that his original trial in
1999 was unfair.
The PKK leader is currently languishing in a Turkish
prison after a death sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment in 2002 after Turkey abolished the
death penalty.
A Turkish law passed in 2003 allows a retrial if a
conviction is quashed by the European court, but is
not retroactive, meaning that Ocalan and around a
hundred others are not eligible. |
Abdullah Ocalan, PKK leader |
A retrial of Ocalan, considered public enemy number
one in Turkey, would likely cause a storm in Turkey,
putting the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a
tricky position and exacerbate nationalism in his
country.
Fighting between the PKK and Turkish security forces
has killed more than 37,000 people since 1984. The
group is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey,
the European Union and the United States.
The ruling came the same day as the victory in the
European Court of Human Rights for a Turkish
journalist and newspaper owner convicted in Turkey
for disseminating separatist propaganda on behalf of
the PKK.
The charges were based on the fact that in 2000 the
two men, Cihan Capan and Halis Dogan, had published
in Ozgur Bakis a letter and an article written by
Murat Karayilan, among others, one of the leaders of
the PKK.
Dogan has been fined and Capan fined and sentenced
to 13 months imprisonment. Capan had left for
Switzerland so the sentences were not enforced. The
two were also convicted for an earlier article
deemed to be propaganda on behalf of an armed
organisation.
Turkey violated the two men's rights to freedom of
expression and to a fair trial, the Strasbourg court
said in a statement, awarding 5,000 euros (6,300
dollars) to Capan and 7,000 euros to Dogan, plus
costs.
AFP
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