Brussels, 12/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was unfairly tried by Turkey. The main chamber of the Strasbourg court gave its verdict on Thursday morning, confirming point by point the ruling given by the chamber in first instance on 12 March 2003.
The Court decided to award EUR 120,000 to Ocalan's lawyers for costs and expenses. It is now up to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which brings together foreign affairs ministers from the Council of Europe, including Turkey, to decide how to follow up the ruling, with the question of a retrial of Abdullah Ocalan by Turkey as the first trial was unfair.
The European Court of Human Rights believes that Turkey violated the European Convention on Human Rights because Ocalan was “not tried by an independent and impartial court” and “did not benefit from fair treatment”, notably because a military judge sat in the State Security Court, he was not represented by lawyers during interrogations during custody, he was unable to access his case until a very advanced point in the proceedings and his lawyers did not have access to the case until very late. The Court also considers that there has been a breach in the Convention on Human Rights “due to the fact that the death penalty was pronounced after an unfair trial” even though Turkey abolished the death penalty in peacetime and commuted Ocalan's penalty to life imprisonment. On the other hand the Court believes that the conditions in which Ocalan was transferred from Kenya, where he was a refugee, to Turkey were not in contradiction of the European Convention on Human Rights and nor is his conditions of detention on the Island of Imrali.
Abdulla Ocalan is the founder of the PKK, Kurdish Liberation Party, an organisation “engaged in a continuous campaign of violence causing thousands of victims”, even according to the definition of the European Court of human Rights itself in its ruling.
The rest of the court ruling can be consulted at: (http: //http://www.echr.coe.int/ ).
Turkey says there will be a retrial
Turkey immediately announced that there would be a retrial. The European Commission also called for one too, appealing to Turkey to “respect” the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. In a press conference in Ankara Dengir Mir Mehment Firat, vice president of the party in power, the AKP, quoted by AFP, stated, “The Republic of Turkey is a rule of law and is open and committed to doing what is necessary as demanded by its laws”. A Turkish diplomat explained that the proceeding for launching this new trial would be done so before 3 October, the planned launch of accession negotiations with Turkey, as “everything has to be in order then”. Although the Kurdish issue is very delicate in Turkey, the authorities waiting for a verdict highlight the fact that the European Court of Human Rights criticised Turkey for a breach of procedures but no for the reasons why it sentenced Mr Ocalan.
“The European Commission expects Turkey to respect the Court's decision”, declared a Commission spokesperson on Thursday, welcoming the fact that it has reacted swiftly and calling for this reaction to be translated into deeds.