Rebel Kurd Leader Is Free to Leave Italy, Court Rules
A Kurdish rebel leader is free to leave Italy after a court lifted restrictions on him Wednesday--a decision condemned by Turkish leaders who consider Abdullah Ocalan a terrorist.
The ruling followed a decision by Germany to withdraw the international arrest warrant it had issued for Ocalan on terrorism charges, news reports said.
A spokesman said Ocalan has no immediate plans to leave the Rome villa where he has been kept under police surveillance.
The leader of the Kurdistan Workers party, or PKK, was detained in Rome last month, when he arrived on a flight from Moscow.
He is wanted in his native land of Turkey for trial on terrorism charges. About 30,000 people have been killed since Ocalan’s rebel group began fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in 1984.
Italy won’t return him to Turkey because its constitution bars extraditing people to a country where they might face the death penalty.
That has sparked tensions between the two countries and prompted an unofficial boycott of Italian products by Turks.
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