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Council of Europe experts meet jailed
Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey
26.5.2007
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May 26, 2007
STRASBOURG , -- Rights experts of the Council
of Europe met jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan
this week on a Turkish island after allegations that
he had been
poinsoned, the pan-European body said Friday.
"Aspects of this prisoner's situation considered by
the delegation included his conditions of detention,
the application in practice of his right to receive
visits from his relatives and lawyers, and his state
of health," the council said.
Experts of the council's Committee for the
Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visited Imrali Closed
Prison on Sunday and Monday.
The next day the delegation also held talks with
Turkish Justice Minister Fahri Kasirga and provided
him with its preliminary observations, a committee
statement said.
The visit came after Kurds ended a 39-day hunger
strike in Strasbourg to press demands for an
examination of their leader by independent experts. |
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. The only
prisoner on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of
Marmara. photo from ROJ TV |
Ocalan's lawyers allege after having his hair
analysed that he had been poisoned, possibly by
toxic metals.
The 58-year-old Kurdish leader was also said to have
been experiencing breathing and skin problems, as
well as pains severe enough to interrupt his sleep.
The allegations prompted Turkish authorities to
order new analyses which according to Turkish
judicial officials found that they were baseless.
The committee statement said that the CPT delegation
"examined the treatment of (Imrali Closed Prison's)
sole inmate, Abdullah Ocalan".
The visit was carried out by head delegate Marc Neve,
a lawyer and CPT member, and Jean-Pierre Restellini,
specialist in internal and forensic medicine and
also a CPT member.
They were assisted by Timothy Harding, psychiatrist
and director of the University Institute of Forensic
Medicine, Geneva, and Fabrice Kellens, Deputy
Executive Secretary of the CPT.
On May 12, more than 14,000 Kurds expressed their
support for the hunger strikers in a Strasbourg
protest. A
petition launched throughout Europe was signed by
more than 100,000 people and backed by members
of the European
Parliament.
Ocalan, who is the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), was sentenced to death in a
high-profile trial in 1999 for treason, but his
sentence was later commuted to a life sentence,
which he is currently serving.
The PKK has waged a bloody separatist campaign in
the mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. It is
listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European
Union and the United States.
In May 2005, the European Court of Human Rights
upheld a ruling in favour of Ocalan, saying that he
had been unfairly tried by a Turkish court, and
urged Ankara to retry him.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
AFP
** 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 over 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 over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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