Kurdish rebel leader Ocalan says no possibility of fair retrial in Turkey

ANKARA, June 3 (AFP) - 11h44 - Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan does not want to be retried in Turkey, where he believes he cannot be judged fairly, one of his attorneys told AFP Friday. "My client does not want to be retried in Turkey. He does not want to be judged under the current circumstances," said Aysel Tugluk, who met with Ocalan Wednesday in the island prison of Imrali, where he is serving a life sentence for treason.

Last month the European court of Human Rights ruled that the Kurdish leader should be retried on grounds that his 1999 trial, in which he was sentenced to death for treason, was unfair. That sentenced was commuted to life in prison in 2002.

Turkish authorities said they would abide by the European court ruling.

But in order for a new trial to take place Ocalan must request it and he has refused to do so on grounds he would not receive a fair trial in Turkey, Tugluk said.

"Ocalan has said that he refuses to play the main role in a play orchestrated by Turkey," she added, pointing out that Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul had said that the Kurdish leader was likely to receive the same sentence if judged "100 times".

Tugluk said Ocalan would like a retrial to take place outside of Turkey and under the auspices of a special tribunal set up by the Council of Europe. That court could be similar to the one in The Hague which is currently judging former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Ocalan's PKK led a bloody armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast between 1984 and 1999 before announcing a unilateral ceasefire to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The group called off the truce last year on the grounds that democratic reforms undertaken by Ankara to expand Kurdish rights were insufficient.