STRASBOURG -- Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's appeal against the death sentence has been given the go-ahead by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, a court spokesman announced Friday. The court adjourned the case last month. Because of the wide- ranging legal implications and the political controversy surrounding Ocalan's appeal, the seven judges examining it have passed it on to a larger chamber of 17 judges.
Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), was abducted by Turkish agents in Kenya two years ago and flown to Turkey for a trial at which he was condemned to hang. (DPA)