Conspiracy theory about PKK leader proven true, MHP deputy chair says

ANKARA

Thanks to a provisional clause that was added to the law on the execution of sentences and security measures at the MHP’s behest, Öcalan cannot currently be released, Tuğrul Türkeş also said. DHA photo

What was once perceived as a conspiracy theory about outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s capture has been proven true by a recent ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chair Tuğrul Türkeş has said.

“The hypothesis that ‘Öcalan was handed over to Turkey on the condition that he enter Parliament one day,’ which was alleged 20 years ago and was perceived as a ‘conspiracy theory’ by evident personalities, is now being confirmed by recent developments,” Türkeş said yesterday in a written statement.

Thanks to a provisional clause that was added to the law on the execution of sentences and security measures at the MHP’s behest, Öcalan cannot currently be released, Türkeş said, citing Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ’s recent statement on the matter. “This article is about preventing conditional release for people who were sentenced to death before their sentences were commuted to life in prison.”

The ECHR called for Ankara to create mechanisms to allow for the possibility of conditional release for prisoners with “aggravated” life sentences, or even to abolish life sentences completely.

Meanwhile, Öcalan’s lawyers Doğan Erbaş, İbrahim Bilmez, Ömer Güneş, Hatice Korkut, Cengiz Çiçek, Muharrem Şahin, Emran Emekçi, Sebahattin Kaya and Mehmet Bayraktar, who are on trial in the ongoing Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) case, were released on March 18.

There are now no more lawyers behind bars in the case, which has come to be known as the KCK Lawyers’ Case.

A judge, however, prohibited those released from traveling abroad pending the finalization of the trial.