In Turkey offenses punishable by death under ordinary...

In Turkey offenses punishable by death under ordinary criminal law are aggravated murder and crimes against the unity and integrity of the State. Turkish courts still impose death sentences but capital punishment has not been enforced since 1984. Sentences must be approved by Parliament before being carried out. Turkey has not used the death penalty since 1984. Most prominent among the outstanding capital convictions is Abdullah Ocalan, head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He was sentenced to hang by a Turkish court on June 29, 1999, after a special fast-track procedure. The rebel chief was convicted for treason and for leading a 15-year guerrilla war for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast of Turkey. Some 30,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians were killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984. Ocalan was captured in February 1999 on leaving the Greek embassy in Nairobi, where he had been given refuge. He fell into the hands of Turkish special forces who flew him, bound and blindfolded, to Turkey. After his death sentence, Ocalan urged his forces to end their fight, but in September 1999, Turkish troops backed by air power, attacked positions in north Iraq held by PKK forces loyal to Ocalan. A small group of guerrillas surrendered to Turkish authorities to prove the sincerity of Ocalan's calls for peace, but a group of Kurdish rebels split from the PKK and vowed to fight on in the mountains. On November 25, 1999 the Appeals Court upheld the death sentence imposed on Ocalan. The European Union condemned the ruling and said no country implementing capital punishment was welcome as a member. On November 30, 1999 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg urged Turkey to delay hanging Ocalan until it ruled on his appeal arguing that the death penalty breaches European law. The chief prosecutor of the Turkish Appeals Court rejected Ocalan's final appeal on December 30, 1999.