LAWYERS representing the captured Kurdish rebel leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, claim their lives are in danger and are suspending their defence activities temporarily, one of the lawyers, Mr Ahmet Zeki Okcuoglu, said in Istanbul yesterday.
"The Turkish state cannot guarantee my security," he said. "I could be killed, not only myself, but my relatives have been threatened as well.
"We will continue the defence only if the United States guarantees the security of the trial."
The lawyer and his colleague, Mr Hatice Korkut, saw Mr Ocalan for only 20 minutes on Thursday on the island of Imrali, in northwest Turkey, "in the presence of a magistrate and two masked soldiers," Mr Okcuoglu said.
He also said that due to the absence of a notary public during their meeting, Mr Ocalan was unable to designate them as his lawyers.
Mr Ocalan has been held on Imrali since he was captured by Turkish commandos in Kenya and brought to Turkey on February 16th.
Another lawyer who offered to defend the PKK leader, Mr Osman Baydemir, was arrested by police in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported, but a group of 15 lawyers have offered to conduct his defence.
Mr Ocalan's trial is to open after prosecutors establish a full list of charges, one of which, attempting "to divide the country", is punishable by the death penalty.
Three aides of Mr Ocalan and the expelled Greek ambassador to Kenya meanwhile have arrived in Greece from Nairobi in a chartered aircraft. Besides the three women aides and the ambassador, Mr George Costoulas, the aircraft was carrying the Greek secret service agent, Mr Savvas Kalederidis, who on February 2nd had escorted Mr Ocalan to Nairobi, where he lived for 12 days at the Greek embassy before being captured by Turkish security agents. Also on board was the secretary-general of the Greek Foreign Ministry, Mr Pavlos Apostolidis.
As the aircraft landed, about 5,000 people marched through central Athens calling for Mr Ocalan's release.
Reuters report from Washington:
The US issued a condemnation of Turkey's human rights record yesterday, reporting widespread torture, harassment of the press and mistreatment of the Kurdish minority.
In its annual report on human rights around the world, the State Department said deaths by beating in jail and disappearances continued and torture remained widespread in Turkey.
While detailing Turkish security force violations against Kurds, the report was equally critical of the PKK. It said the PKK intensified a campaign of suicide bombings after Mr Ocalan was arrested in Italy in November. "PKK terrorists frequently killed non-combatants, targeting village officials, village guards, teachers and other perceived representatives of the state," it said.
It estimated that 560,000 villagers had been forcibly evacuated from their homes since the conflict began.
The Iranian embassy in The Hague was the target of a terrorist attack last night, Dutch police said. The attackers claimed to be supporters of the Kurdish nationalist cause, the police said.