Ocalan trial ruled unfair

Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan did not receive a fair trial in Turkey, the European human rights court ruled today.

The decision will put pressure on Ankara to grant the country’s most famous prisoner a new trial.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that Turkish authorities breached international treaties by treating Ocalan inhumanely on his transfer to an island prison near Istanbul six years ago, denying him the right to a fair and independent trial and barring his legal representative from contacting him after he was detained.