Turkish government sends law limiting death penalty to parliament

Apr 15 2002

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's government on Monday sent a draft law to parliament that would abolish the death penalty except in cases of terrorism and treason, a move aimed at easing Turkey's path to European Union (news - web sites) membership.

The law, which is likely to pass through parliament later this month, enshrines a constitutional amendment passed last year that lifted the death sentence except for terrorism and treason. It will not, however, affect the fate of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, currently on death row in a Turkish prison after being convicted of treason.

 The European Union has pressed Turkey to abolish the death sentence entirely, but nationalists in the three-party coalition government still insist that Ocalan must hang, and oppose a more far-reaching law that would lift the death penalty in all cases.

 Other government members, including Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, have expressed backing for complete abolition. It is not clear if a partial abolition will meet the European Union's criteria for membership.

 Nobody has been executed in Turkey since 1984. But this effective moratorium could come under pressure later this year when the European Court of Human Rights rules on Ocalan's appeal against his death sentence.

 Turkey has promised to wait for that verdict before deciding whether to execute the Kurdish leader, whose rebel group fought a 15-year war for autonomy in the largely Kurdish southeast. The conflict has cost some 37,000 lives, though fighting has eased since the rebels called a cease fire after Ocalan's arrest in 1999.