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22.9.06
Netherlands: Top court upholds ban on Kurd activist's extradition
The Dutch Supreme Court has blocked the extradition to Turkey of Kurdish
activist Nuriye Kesbir, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the
grounds that she could face torture there by Turkish police. "Kesbir cannot
be extradited to Turkey," the court said in a statement on its website. The
ruling comes as a relief to Kesbir but represents a defeat for justice
minister Piet-Hein Donner, who has been attempting to send Kesbir back to
Turkey since 2004.
The Supreme Court's ban on Kesbir's extradition could however be lifted if
Turkey makes more solid guarantees that she will not be tortured, court
spokeswoman Eveline Hartogs was quoted as saying.
Kesbir was released in January 2005 after she successfully appealed against
Donner's September 2004 authorisation of her extradition. A Dutch appeals
court ruled there was a "discrepancy" between the Turkish government's
intended treatment of the activist and what happened in police stations and
prisons.
The Supreme Court's Friday ruling upheld the ban on Kesbir's extradition,
which Donner had blocked. Kesbir worked alongside Osman Ocalan, the brother
of former PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence
in Turkey since 1999.
Kesbir is accused by Turkey of involvement in at least 225 attacks carried
out in Turkey between 1993 and 1995. Kesbir denies any involvement in the
attacks. She was arrested at Amsterdam's Schipol airport in September, 2001.