ANKARA - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Wednesday that results of the case in which Abdullah Ocalan, the head of terrorist organization, and 12 other people, who helped Ocalan to enter Greece illegally, did not meet expectations of the international community and did not satisfy Turkish public opinion.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on the case at the Athens High Criminal Court about Ocalan's entering Greece in 1999 illegally with the help of some people including Greek officials.
''The case resulted in acquittal of all suspects including Ocalan. We are astonished with the court's decision. Statements of suspects and witnesses during the trial process has unveiled that some government officials of the period, members of the Greek Intelligence Agency and other high-level public officials had connections with the terrorist organization PKK.''
''The lawsuit was filed on charges of bringing Greece face to face with the jeopardy of war. However, the court decided to acquit all suspects. This decision does not change the fact that some Greek directors and officials had provided the terrorist organization with assistance and cooperated with the organization. As a result, decision of the court did not meet expectations of the international community, which is quite sensitive about terrorism, and did not satisfy Turkish public opinion,'' the statement added.
Athens High Criminal Court decided to acquit Ocalan on the pretext that ''he entered Greece illegally because he had to''.
Retired naval officer Andonis Naksakis and members of the terrorist organization Ayfer Kaya and Cengiz Kaya were acquitted because ''they did not act with the intention of damaging Greece.''
Airport officials, members of the Greek Secret Service, police, pilot of the plane carrying Ocalan and officials of the company having the plane were acquitted as ''their actions were not intentional''.
(UK-AÖ) 02.07.2003