STRASBOURG -- At least 15,000 Kurds set off Tuesday on a noisy and emotionally charged march in support of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose appeal against a death sentence passed down by Turkish authorities was heard at the European Court of Human Rights.
The protestors, many in traditional Kurdish dress and carrying placards of the rebel leader, chanted "Freedom for Ocalan, Peace for Kurdistan" as the march wound its way through the Strasbourg streets under the watchful of eye of French police, AFP reported.
A major security operation was underway to ensure that the Kurdish protestors were kept apart from at least 5,000 Turks calling for Ocalan's death sentence to be upheld.
The vast majority of the protestors for both marches streamed over the Strasbourg's Rhine bridge from Germany overnight, in a major security headache for French authorities. No incidents had been reported by midday Tuesday.
Heva, a young Kurd who came from Metz in Germany to participate called for a new trial for Ocalan to be conducted by an international tribunal in The Hague.
But Ahmed, a Turkish businessman from Munich, poured scorn on the Kurdish protestors.
"The pro-Ocalan demonstrators are not Kurds, they are terrorists," he said.
Similar accusations were levelled at Ocalan in the more serene surroundings of the courtroom, where Turkish government lawyer Sukru Altaslan described him as the leader of "a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was responsible for 6,036 armed attacks on civilians, 8,257 clashes with the Turkish security forces, 3,071 bombings and 1,046 kidnappings, Altaslan said.
But one of the lawyers acting for Ocalan, Briton Sir Sydney Kentridge, countered that in order for the court to uphold the rebel leader's death sentence, it would have to deem execution neither degrading or inhuman.
Such a decision, which would be contrary to the European Human Rights Convention, would be "little short of disastrous, and would bring the convention into disrepute," he said.
The rebel leader's lawyers also claim their client's sentence is a violation of several articles of the European Human Rights Convention, including the right to life, the right to a fair trial, the right to freedom of expression and the right to respect for private and family life.
After Tuesday's hearing, the court adjourned to decide whether Ocalan's case is well founded and receivable.
An initial decision is expected within a week, but a final ruling may take months to reach.
Ocalan is being held on the island prison of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, where he is the only prisoner. He was arrested in February 1999 by Turkish agents in Kenya, and was sentenced to death for treason and separatism in June of the same year.
The Ocalan case is the latest and most high-profile rift between Turkey and European institutions over the country's dubious human rights record.