Welcome for Strasbourg court finding on unfair Öcalan trial

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 12th May 2005

Commenting on today's verdict by the European Court of Human Rights that the original trial of Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan violated basic human rights, London Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP:

"This verdict represents justice for the Kurdish people and Kurdish rights. How a country tries people it accuses of terrorism is a measure of its democracy, as Liberal Democrats have pointed out to Tony Blair."

"I hope that Turkey's response is a swift and proper retrial of Mr Öcalan. Naturally, there are implications for Turkey's EU membership aspirations, and the EU will be vigilant in monitoring Turkey's compliance with today's verdict."

"The only solid basis for resolution of the decades-long conflict in South-East Turkey, during which atrocities were committed on both sides, is for the Turkish state to acknowledge Kurdish identity and negotiate appropriate social, cultural and political arrangements to accommodate diversity. One can look around Europe and see many examples of how this can be done."

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Abdullah Öcalan's original trial was riddled with flaws, including because he was not tried by an independent and impartial tribunal, wasn't brought promptly before a judge after his arrest and that his lawyers were not given adequate time to prepare his defence.

The European Court of Human Rights said that a retrial would be an appropriate method of redress, but did not set a time limit on this.