The New York Times

Tuesday, November 30, 1999

Eurocourt Wants Ocalan Hanging Delay

By Reuters

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights asked Turkey on Tuesday to delay the execution of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan until it has ruled on his plea that the death penalty breaches European law.

In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit delayed stating any firm position on the case, which is central to Turkey's hopes of winning European Union candidacy next month.

Ecevit must juggle Turkey's European aspirations with the wishes of his hardline nationalist coalition partners. Neither wish to be seen to be bowing to European pressure.

In a statement, the court said it requested Turkey ``to take all necessary steps to ensure that the death penalty is not carried out so as to enable the Court to proceed effectively with the examination of the admissibility and merits of the applicant's complaints under the (European) Convention.''

A Turkish court earlier this month upheld a ruling that Ocalan should hang for treason and murder in leading the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in a 15-year armed campaign for Kurdish self rule. More than 30,000 people have died.

Ocalan's lawyers have asked the Strasbourg-based European court to rule that the European Convention of Human Rights guarantees their client's right to life. The court is unlikely to rule for several months.

``This decision conforms with our request. I hope Turkey will now do everything so that parliament will abide by this decision and abolish the death penalty,'' Ocalan lawyer Hasip Kaplan said in Strasbourg.

Turkey is committed to accepting the rulings of the Strasbourg-based court and, under that commitment, may not carry out any hanging until the court has ruled.

The European Union has told Turkey that relations and its aspirations to membership would suffer if Ocalan is executed.

TURKEY HOPES TO BE EU CANDIDATE

Turkey hopes to be classed as a candidate for EU membership at a bloc summit in Helsinki on December 10-11.

While the country retains the death penalty on its books, no executions have been carried out since the mid 1980s.

Prime Minister Ecevit said he and his government partners would not decide on the European court ruling until the Ocalan case passes through the Turkish judicial system.

Ocalan's lawyers have one last route of domestic appeal: a request to the chief prosecutor for a ``correction.'' Such a move is unlikely to succeed but Ecevit said his government would not address the case until legal channels were closed.

``We will evaluate the issue when the judicial decision is transferred to the government,'' he said in remarks broadcast on live television after meeting his coalition partners.

Once the legal process is over, any death penalty goes before parliament, which decides whether to carry it out. A second set of charges against Ocalan might possibly further delay the need for parliament to take a vote on the case.

Ecevit's biggest government ally is a hardline Turkish nationalist party that campaigned for April elections by advocating death for Ocalan.

Despite the effective moratorium on capital punishment, many argue that Ocalan deserves death for leading the PKK's bloody campaign for self rule in the mainly-Kurdish southeast. He is reviled in the mainstream press as a ``monster'' who ordered the killings of children and civilians.

Ecevit was helped to power in April by popular support after he presided over Ocalan's capture from Kenya in February.

If parliament approves a death sentence, President Suleyman Demirel may return the decision to parliament for a second vote.