May 10
TURKEY:
The European Court of Human Rights will rule on the case of Ocalan this
week.
In the decision to be announced Thursday, it is expected to rule for a
retrial of the terrorist leader. After Ocalan got the death penalty, and
after the death penalty was abolished, in 2002, aggravated prison terms
were applied. Because of the exception brought to cases that do not come
to a conclusion in the European Court of Human Rights, (ECHR) the amnesty
path to Ocalan was closed. For this reason, the appeal Ocalan's lawyers
made to ECHR was only accepted as an appeal to defend their client. Both
Ocalan's lawyers and the Turkish government opposed the decision of the
Lower Chamber of the ECHR. In accordance with this opposition, decisions
on Ocalan's case file will be made by the Grand Chamber. The ECHR will
propose that in order to observe the judicial proceedings, a 'Commission
of Delegates' made up of European Council members will be formed.
The Foreign Ministry favors abiding by the decision. The international
rules of law make it necessary that the Ocalan case should be reopened.
Also, the negotiation process with the European Union due to start this
October is not expected to be affected negatively by the Ocalan case.
After being tried as the murderer of 30,000 people, it is not likely that
Ocalan will be acquitted this time either.
(source: Agence France Presse)
