Greece announces it is not responsible for handing Ocalan over to Turkey
Regional-Greece, Politics, 2/16/1999

The Greek government today said that it is not responsible for arresting PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The spokesman for the Greek government, Demitres Repas, said that Ocalan decided to leave the headquarters of the Greek embassy in Nairobi on Monday and since then, the Greek government has not had any information and has no responsibility towards what happened later on.

The Greek spokesman added that it is the responsibility of the Kenyan government to inform of what had happened: "We wait for this and express our regret that we have not information about that yet."

In Rome, one of Ocalan's lawyers announced that the former on Sunday was exposed to an assassination attempt. Italian lawyer Jelia Nobisabia added that during the assassination attempt Ocalan was at the headquarters of the Greek diplomatic mission in Nairobi.

On the other hand, the Italian lawyer confirmed to the Turkish government that Ocalan faces only an prison sentence not to exceed 10 years and ruled out that Ocalan will be sentenced to death.

Meanwhile, The government of Kenya said today that it is not responsible for sending Abdullah Ocalan to Turkey. It explained that it had asked the Greek authorities to get him out of Kenya by air.

In a statement he made today in Nairobi, Kenya's foreign minister said that his country did not know the destination to which Ocalan was taken, noting that if Kenya had known this destination it would not have delivered him to Turkey.

The Kenyan FM added that Kenya had asked Greece to take Ocalan from Kenya after the Kenyan authorities learned that he was at the Greek embassy in Nairobi.

The Kenyan minister continued: "We want to tell all sides concerned that we had no role in this matter."

Previous Stories:
  Greek government statement of Ocalan   (2/16/1999)
  Ocalan asks for sanctuary in Greece   (2/15/1999)
  Greece denies having had Ocalan in its territories   (2/9/1999)
  Holland refuses Ocalan in Rotterdam   (2/2/1999)

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