The judges of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously rejected Thursday an application by the PKK terrorist organization's jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan in which he accused Turkey of maltreatment and torture.
A statement by the court said that the application by Öcalan's lawyers, dating back to 2010 regarding a ward search by prison guards in 2008, was unanimously rejected since the claims were unfounded and there was no evidence.
The statement said that Öcalan was examined by doctors on the day of the search and the day after, and no physical or psychological problems were noted. It also added that Öcalan did not make any complaints to doctors and there was no legal attempt about the claims.
Öcalan's lawyers claimed that Turkey violated articles 2, 3, 6, 13 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the right to life, prohibiting torture and maltreatment, right to fair trial, right to an effective remedy and protection from discrimination, respectively.
70-year-old Öcalan, who founded the PKK in 1978, was captured in 1999 and sentenced to death penalty due to his role in the terrorist group's decades-long campaign against the Turkish state, which led to the deaths of more than 40,000 people.
After the abolishment of the death penalty in Turkey in 2002, Öcalan's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He is being held in a high security prison on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara.
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