Report: Ocalan's lawyer tells the story of his capture
Regional, Politics, 2/19/1999

A lawyer for captured Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, Preta Boiler, has singled out former Greek Foreign Minister Theodore Pangalos as bearing the main responsibility for what happened to her client (Ocalan), who was handed over by the Kenyan authorities to a group of Turkish intelligence at an airport in Nairobi.

The lawyer said that the resigned Greek minister was the "engineer" of the operation taking Ocalan to a non-European state from which it would be possible to deliver the Kurdish leader to Ankara.

Boiler told the correspondent of the London-based al-Hayat daily in Amsterdam about the details on the arrest operation. She noted places where Ocalan was hidden in the period after he left Rome, and his travel to Nairobi on February 2.

Boiler said: "After my client left Italy for Russia, where he stayed for a while, he headed for Greece where he asked for political asylum. After several days we tried to bring him to Holland (February 1). The attempt did not succeed, and then we returned back to Greece. On February 2, the Greek security authorities transported him to the Greek embassy in Kenya."

The lawyer added, "The Greek Foreign Minister pledged my client that he would be under the official protection of Greece during his presence at the embassy and that Athens is working to arrange his stay in South Africa." The lawyer said: "Athens asserted to him (Ocalan) that he will be under Greece's official protection and it had become clear later that these Greek assurances were just a cover for Ocalan's kidnapping."

She continued: "I have documented and authorized information which stresses Athens' cooperation with the US intelligence to organize Ocalan's trip to Kenya in order to get him out of Europe, so as to facilitate putting him in the hands of the Turks, when he becomes outside Europe."

The lawyer told details of the last hours saying: "On February 15, at night the Greek embassy in Kenya received a telephone call from Pangalos in which he told my client (Ocalan) that he is before two choices: either to leave the embassy at his own wish and the embassy's care to take him to Nairobi airport where he will take a Dutch KLM plane for Amsterdam, or the Kenyan security forces would enter the Greek embassy after one hour to arrest him and then evacuate him to Holland."

She continued: "My client welcomed to travel to Amsterdam, but he wanted to know from me the extent of the credibility of the Greek minister's offer, but the Greeks cut all telephone communications. About six or seven at night, Kenyan security men entered the embassy and asked my client accompany them to the airport to join the KLM flight. He refused that, and they took him by means of force, by a three-car grouping. The first car had the security men, the second my client and his security guards and the third was the car of the Greek ambassador. Upon arriving near the airport, Ocalan's car diverted its route suddenly and he was pushed into a small Falcon plane, which was awaiting him, boarding the Turks security men who arrested Ocalan."

Boiler stressed that a role was played by the CIA in the kidnapping operation and indicated an Israeli role is still not clear enough for her. She added that she is now studying reports which link the Mossad to certain stages of the kidnapping operation.

Previous Stories:
  Ocalan capture: Mossad kills 3 Kurds in Berlin   (2/18/1999)
  Reactions to Ocalan arrest   (2/16/1999)
  Greek government statement of Ocalan   (2/16/1999)
  Turkish prime minister announces Ocalan's arrest   (2/16/1999)

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