Doc. 8500
8 September 1999

Sentencing to death of Abdullah Öcalan

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Ms Pozza Tasca and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it

The Assembly,

      - having regard to Resolutions 1044/94, 1097/97 and 1187/99;

      - having regard to Protocol No.6 to the European Convention on Human Rights;

      - repeating its firm belief that the death penalty violates everyone's most basic right, the right to life;

      - whereas the trial of the Kurdish leader, Abdullah Öcalan, in which the prosecution sought and won the death penalty, was conducted without any international guarantees;

      - aware that the sentence remains to be upheld at appeal, then ratified by the Turkish Parliament and thereafter countersigned by the President of the Republic,

      recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

- urge that the death sentence not be carried out;




- send a mission to Turkey without delay to press the government and Turkish institutions to abolish the death penalty in Turkish law and institute the necessary safeguards to ensure scrupulous observance of human rights;

-        give its backing for an international conference attended by all parties to the conflict and aimed at a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the Kurdish question, and put forward the Council of Europe as a guarantor of the democratisation process.

Signed:¹

Pozza Tasca, Italy, LDR

Aleffi, Italy, EPP/CD

Bianchi, Italy, EPP/CD

Brancati, Italy, SOC

Brunetti, Italy, UEL

Gnaga, Italy, LDR

Lento, Italy, UEL

Polenta, Italy, EPP/CD

Risari, Italy, EPP/CD

Rodeghiero, Italy, LDR