Euro Court Raps Turkey for Ocalan Trial

Reuters ^ | 3/12/2003 | N/A

[a_Turk]

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday criticized Turkey for its handling of the trial of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The court said the trial was unfair because a military judge was present for some of the hearings and because Ocalan was given only restricted access to his lawyers.

The ruling means Turkey should in theory be obliged to try Ocalan again, but it is not binding.

Turkey blames him for 30,000 deaths in a 16-year Kurdish separatist campaign by the Kurdish Workers Party for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

Ocalan was given a death sentence by a Turkish court in 1999. The aim of his original appeal was to lift the death sentence, but it was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after Turkey abolished the death penalty last August.

However, Ocalan still contested the conditions of his arrest, trial and imprisonment, saying his treatment was "inhuman and degrading."

[a_Turk]

Ocalan .... saying his treatment was "inhuman and degrading."

Then I wonder what his treatment of the teachers, mothers, fathers, and children in these pictures was..

We still have the death penalty active in war o near war situations. Time to try the sucker again..

[DeuceTraveler]

"The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday criticized Turkey for its handling of the trial of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan."


The United Nations and the European Union: Two corrupt organizations who seek to destroy the sovereignty of their members.

[Mortimer Snavely]

Whoever weeps for this SOB needs to be horse whipped.