Ahmet Zeki Okçuoglu is nominated by the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan to manage his defence lawyers’ work.

What do you think about the Öcalan’s Case ?

The Turkish rule is a totalitarian system supported by many foreign countries and the Kurds are too weak in that struggle. They need external support for obtaining democracy and justice in Turkey. Öcalan is a Kurdish leader and for that reason, when he came to Europa, nobody accepted to give him some status, though we know that some Turkish mafiosos are "protected" in Europa.

However, the Öcalan case is chance for establishing a democratic system and for the respect of Kurdish rights. This trial has an European aspect, then European lawyers should join us.

Could you meet Öcalan and in which conditions ?

I saw four times my client, but for each visit I have to travel 11 hours for a very short meeting (20 minutes the first time, 40 the second and one hour for the two last). During these visits, we inform our client about what happens outside. Our talkings are listened and he asks only few questions, because he fears for his safety. A commission from the secret services asks him all the time, and he is separated from the world. He stays in a dark room and goes out one per day, in a narrow place from he could not see even the sky.

During our two first meetings, Öcalan did not complain about physical torture, but talked about psychological torture. During the two last meetings, he took some drugs. We don’t know more.

The Turkish medias declared that he has some heart diseases and is in a bad health. But he said that he is well. Then we could fear that the Turkish state spread false informations for pretending after he had some heart attack.

And what about the trial ?

17 lawyers will defend him but working in coorect conditions is very difficult. We have just a part of the indicment since yesterday (22/03/99) and it concerns three trials, though the State declares that there will be 18 trials. But we ignore the indicments against him. We just know that during the trial, the Turkish state will show him like a killer, a monster.

Many mistakes in his file could be easy refuted. The State accuses the Kurds to be terrorists though in Turkey the real terrorist is the government. We will prepare the defence by establishing that a terrorist system exists since 75 years.

We will prepare his defence as there would be two courts : The Safety Court of State and in that court we are not certain to obtain a result. But the Human Sensibility Court could do nothing but supporting us.

This trial could be a chance for the Kurds, who have some supports from foreign political parties, and delegations from Norway, England, Belgium, Italia and France. What the states can do achieve, some associations can may be do it, for changing the situation. The rule of silence has been broken. Another rule should not replace it.