Kurdish rebel leader did not get fair trial, court rules

EUROPE’S top human rights court yesterday upheld a complaint by imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan that he did not receive a fair trial in a Turkish court.

“The Ankara State Security Court, which convicted the applicant, had not been an independent and impartial tribunal,” said the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

On some of the 11 other complaints lodged by lawyers of the jailed rebel leader, the court ruled in Turkey’s favour. It rejected charges that Ocalan’s conditions of detention were inhumane or that he had been illegally detained.