Italy Frees Kurd Guerrilla Chief
Rome's Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday that detained Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan could go free because Germany had withdrawn its international arrest warrant for the rebel chief, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The court said that because Germany had canceled its international warrant, which would have meant an extradition request was expected, Ocalan no longer needed to be detained in Italy.
The court, chaired by Judge Tommaso Figliuzzi, said Germany had substituted its international arrest warrant for another arrest warrant, which meant he could only be arrested if he set foot on German soil, ANSA reported.
Ocalan was arrested after he arrived in Rome on Nov. 12 with a false passport aboard a flight from Russia. Italy said it had arrested the Kurd leader solely because of the German warrant.
A Kurd spokesman said Wednesday that Ocalan would stay in Rome.
"He [Ocalan] is a free citizen now, but he will stay in his villa in Rome," said Ahmed Yaman, the Italian spokesman for the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan.
Ocalan has applied for political asylum in Italy, and an interior ministry commission was expected to discuss his request by the end of December.
Ocalan has said he would agree to stand trial if the international community also agreed to hold an international conference to try to solve the Kurdish question and help find a peace settlement between Turkey and the Kurdish people.
Turkey assailed the Italian court decision and said it would further worsen strained relations between Ankara and Rome.
"It will damage both Turkish-Italian relations and international law," Defense Minister Ismet Sezgin told the NTV television channel.
Ankara, which blames Ocalan for the deaths of thousands of Turkish soldiers and civilians, sparked an international row when its demands for Ocalan's extradition were rejected by Italy.
Italian law forbids extradition to countries with the death penalty, which Ocalan could have faced in Turkey.
Turkey has also voiced opposition to an international trial because Ankara fears it might be used as a platform by Kurd secessionists to elicit sympathy on the world stage.
Ocalan has said that he no longer supports armed struggle against Turkey and that the dispute should be solved politically.
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