BY DERYA SAZAK
MILLIYET- The European Court of Human Rights will rule on the case of Ocalan this week. In the decision to be announced Thursday, it is expected to rule for a retrial of the terrorist leader. After Ocalan got the death penalty, and after the death penalty was abolished, in 2002, aggravated prison terms were applied. Because of the exception brought to cases that do not come to a conclusion in the European Court of Human Rights, (ECHR) the amnesty path to Ocalan was closed. For this reason, the appeal Ocalan’s lawyers made to ECHR was only accepted as an appeal to defend their client. Both Ocalan’s lawyers and the Turkish government opposed the decision of the Lower Chamber of the ECHR. In accordance with this opposition, decisions on Ocalan’s case file will be made by the Grand Chamber. The ECHR will propose that in order to observe the judicial proceedings, a ‘Commission of Delegates’ made up of European Council members will be formed.
The Foreign Ministry favors abiding by the decision. The international rules of law make it necessary that the Ocalan case should be reopened. Also, the negotiation process with the European Union due to start this October is not expected to be affected negatively by the Ocalan case. After being tried as the murderer of 30,000 people, it is not likely that Ocalan will be acquitted this time either.