Ocalan begins appeal against death sentence
By Justin Huggler
22 November 2000
One of the most controversial cases in the history of the European Court of Human Rights opened in Strasbourg yesterday: the appeal of Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish rebel leader, against the death sentence he was handed down in Turkey.
Kurdish supporters of Ocalan have vowed to make Strasbourg in France, where the court sits, "a Kurdish city" for the event. Yesterday, 15,000 of them marched peacefully while French police kept them apart from 3,000 rival Turkish protesters – and both groups away from the court.
Ocalan's sister sat beside relatives of Turkish soldiers "martyred" in the 15-year Kurdish war inside the courtroom
Sir Sydney Kentridge QC, the British lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela in the Sixties and appeared at the inquest into the death of Steve Biko, headed a team of British and Turkish lawyers representing the rebel leader.
Ocalan himself is still in solitary confinement on the Turkish prison island where he has been the sole inmate since he was snatched from the streets of Nairobi by Turkish security forces in February last year.
The Turkish government has pledged not to hang him until the European Court decides his appeal.
Ocalan was sentenced to death in June last year for leading the 15-year Kurdish separatist rebellion and trying to break up the Turkish state. Turkey holds him responsible for killing 30,000 in the fighting, but the majority of those 30,000 were Kurdish rebels and supporters who died at the hands of Turkish security forces.
Yesterday's hearing was just the start of a long process that could take years. Initially the court must determine whether Ocalan's appeal is admissible but the repercussions of this case will be far reaching.
There is no shortage of experts predicting that a decision against Turkey will further strain relations between Ankara and the European Union. Yesterday Ismail Cem, the Turkish Foreign Minister, accused the EU, which it is trying to join, of acting like a "colonial power" in the conditions it is imposing for Turkish membership.
But the case could have much more serious effects than ruffling Turkish sensibilities.
It will be closely followed in the wretched slums of south-east Turkey where the Kurds have lived in the shadow of the guns for 15 years, and where a fragile peace holds only because they expect Europe to deliver them the rights they have so long been denied by the Turkish authorities.
The rebel leader's lawyers say the Ocalan case will establish as a principle whether capital punishment is acceptable in Europe.
"In the year 2000 the infliction of the death penalty is an inhuman and degrading treatment," Sir Sydney Kentridge told the court yesterday. "Save for Turkey, and even it is not certain, there is now a complete consensus (against the death penalty) in Europe."
Though the death penalty remains on the books in Turkey it has not been carried out since 1984. But Turkish politicians have spoken of breaking that tradition in Ocalan's case and hanging him, a move that his lawyers say would amount to discrimination.
Ocalan's lawyers accuse Turkey of violating 12 articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
As well as arguing that capital punishment violates the right to life they accuse Turkey of violating Ocalan's right to liberty by covertly abducting him from the streets of Nairobi, of mistreating him in custody – when Ocalan was captured Turkish authorities paraded him blindfold before a Turkish flag – and of denying him a fair trial. Among many other claims, they also charge Turkish authorities with trying to obstruct his right of appeal to the European Court.
The judges retired yesterday to consider whether the case is admissible. They are expected to rule that the court will hear at least some of Ocalan's application but a ruling is not expected for at least a week.