Jailed PKK leader's lawyers to defend DHKP/C members arrested in Greece

ATHENS

One of four Turkish men arrested in Greece and wearing a white bulletproof vest, is escorted by anti-terror police officers to the court, in Athens, Feb 11. APphoto

Four senior members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), who were arrested in Greece in an anti-terror operation last week, will be defended by the lawyer of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Feb. 10 raid on residences in the Gizi neighborhood of Athens was triggered by an anonymous informer and led to the arrest of four men, including DHKP/C leader Hüseyin Fevzi Tekin and İsmail Akkol, who is wanted by Turkish authorities for his alleged involvement in the murder of businessman Özdemir Sabancı in 1996.

Yiannis Rahiotis, Öcalan’s Greek lawyer, told Hürriyet that he would defend the DHKP/C members in court. Öcalan had sued the Greek government in 2008 for its role in his capture by the Turkish security forces in 1999, in a case that Rahiotis says was suspended.

Rahiotis also defended the November 17 organization, which committed a series of murders, including of Turkish diplomats, from 1975 to 2002.

According to Greek media reports, DHKP/C member Akkol confessed in his interrogation by Greek police last Friday that the weapons found in their Gizi house were bought to be used in attacks on the Turkish territory. He also reportedly confessed that he lied when he said his name was “Cengiz Akkol” at the time of his arrest. 

The other captured DHKP/C members, Bilgehan Karpat and Mehmet Ali Yilmaz, are still in Larisa prison, while Tekin is being in a prison in Domoko.