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.

The Turkish government said it would appeal the ruling. “The reasons behind the decision ... are not sound,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Turkey will not have to make any immediate changes to Ocalan’s situation, but if the verdict is upheld on appeal by the European Court’s 17-member Grand Chamber, Ankara would face pressure to grant a retrial. Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis was quoted by Turkey’s private NTV television as saying that “even if he is retried, the same sentence will be given.”

Ocalan was snatched by Turkish commandos in Kenya in 1999 and flown to Turkey, which blames him for leading a 15-year insurgency against Turkey that left 37,000 people dead. The rebels declared a ceasefire after his capture.

Since his trial, Ocalan has been the only inmate on the prison island of Imrali.

The court said conditions there “had not reached the minimum level of severity necessary to constitute inhuman or degrading treatment” under the European Convention of Human Rights.

The court’s verdicts are binding on all 44 members of the Council of Europe, a human rights body that Turkey joined in 1949. However, it is up to governments of member nations to ensure compliance with the court’s rulings, a process that can take years.

The panel of seven European judges awarded Ocalan 100,000 in costs.

“This decision supports our arguments that the rights of the defence were violated, that we as lawyers were pressured, and that the trial was not fair,” said Ercan Kanar, a lawyer who defended Ocalan during his trial in Turkey.

Ocalan was sentenced to death in 1999 but the sentence was commuted to life in prison last year.