ANKARA - Ankara State Security Court (DGM) No. 1 rejected on Wednesday objections to the decision to commute death sentence of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization, to heavy life imprisonment.
Thus, the legal process of Ocalan case has been completed.
Sources said that Ankara DGM No. 1 rejected the objections of Ocalan's lawyers and the intervenors of the case to the decision to commute Ocalan's death sentence to heavy life imprisonment.
Ankara DGM No. 2 sentenced Ocalan to death penalty under the Article 125 of Turkish Penal Code (TCK) in the end of the trial in the Imrali island.
The court later commuted the death sentence to heavy life imprisonment on October 3, 2002 under the law on amendment to several laws which abolished death sentence except times of war or close war threat.
Intervenor lawyers claimed that the decision to turn the death sentence into heavy life imprisonment was ''against the procedures and laws'' and demanded the court to overrule the decision.
Ocalan's lawyers claimed that the fact that Ocalan could not benefit from provisions of the law on execution of punishments and the Anti-Terrorism Law regarding conditional release was against the Constitution.
Ocalan's lawyers claimed that the second paragraph of first article of law no 4771 foreseeing continuation of heavy life imprisonment until death was unconstitutional and asked the Supreme Court of Appeals to apply to the Constitutional Court for annulment of that article.
Ankara DGM No. 2 considered the applications an appeal and sent the file to the Supreme Court of Appeals.
The Supreme Court of Appeals Criminal General Board decided that the applications could be considered an objection.
Ankara DGM No. 1, where the file was later sent, rejected the objections. Thus, the legal procedure regarding Ocalan case has been completed.
(BRC-AÖ) 30.07.2003