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EU Rights court rejects Abdullah Öcalan
retrial request
15.2.2007
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February 15, 2007
ANKARA -The Council of Europe Ministers
Committee refused an application from Abdullah
Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) for a retrial, saying that there
is no need for him to be retried in Turkey, reported
the Anatolia news agency yesterday. However, the
decision had not yet been made public when the
Turkish Daily News went to print.
The committee ruled that as a member of the Council
of Europe, Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities
with regard to Öcalan's trial in Turkish courts and
said that the country has not violated the European
Convention on Human Rights definition of a fair
trial.
The committee's decision will be made upon a
consensus of representatives and specialists after
two days of meetings, which started on Tuesday. The
meeting was continuing when the TDN went to press.
Turkish diplomatic sources speaking with the TDN
yesterday said that they expected Öcalan's
application for a retrial to be refused, however, it
would not be certain until an official announcement
was made by the committee's president at the end of
the meeting in Strasbourg.
Öcalan was captured in 1999 and tried, convicted and
sentenced to death as a result of nine court
hearings. After the abolishment of the death penalty
in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) in 2002, his
punishment was converted to life imprisonment by the
Court of Appeals. |
Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan Now, The only
prisoner on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of
Marmara. photo from ROJ TV |
Öcalan applied to the Strasbourg-based European
Court of Human Rights in 2003, complaining that he
had not been given a fair trial in Turkish courts.
Öcalan, in his application prepared by his lawyers
in Britain, claimed that he had not been retried
even though the European court ruled in 2005 that
Turkey had violated Öcalan's right to a fair trial.
In May 2005, the European court ruled that Turkish
authorities had breached international treaties
including Article 6 of the European Convention on
Human Rights – to which Turkey is a party – by
refusing to grant Öcalan the right to a fair and
independent trial and by barring his legal
representative from contacting him after he was
detained. The court also said Öcalan had not been
tried by an independent and impartial tribunal in
1999, he had not been brought before a judge
promptly after his arrest and that his lawyers had
not been given adequate time to prepare his defense.
More than 30,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for a Kurdish homeland in the country's
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
turkishdailynews com.tr
** The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK,
which demands for independence for the southeastern
and heavily Kurdish Anatolia region
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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