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Turkish police search visitors to Mudanya, the closest port to the Imrali prison island

May 30, 1999
Web posted at: 2:52 p.m. EDT (1852 GMT)

MUDANYA, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish security forces surrounded a prison island with warships, police helicopters and well-armed soldiers on Sunday as a state security court prepared to try Turkey's most wanted man.

Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan goes on trial Monday, charged with leading a 15-year guerrilla war against the Turkish government. That struggle has claimed more than 30,000 lives, including Turkish soldiers, Kurdish fighters and civilians on both sides. If convicted, Ocalan could be sentenced to death.

Turkey was taking no chances Sunday: Warships patrolled the Sea of Marmara off Imrali Island, where Ocalan is the lone prisoner. Paramilitary troops armed with submachine guns guard the jetty from which boats will take reporters and other observers to the trial, which will be held in a converted cinema.

Who's Ocalan? Chart: Tracking Ocalan's Arrest Trial Process: A Primer Analysis: The Kurds' Grievances Forum: Your Comments

Journalists approved to attend the trial were fingerprinted, and special machines scanned their retinas for identification. About 130 people -- including reporters, lawyers, Ocalan's family and relatives of Turkish soldiers killed in the fighting -- will be ferried to the island each day.

Throughout Turkey, anticipation for the trial was growing.

"Time to give account," proclaimed the nationalist Turkiye newspaper beside a grotesquely distorted rendition of Ocalan's face. In the illustration, blood trickles from his mouth through a thick mustache.

Concerns about a fair trial

Kurdish protesters march in Dusseldorf, Germany, to protest Ocalan's trial

Ocalan was captured by Turkish commandos outside the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in February, ending a months-long odyssey where Ocalan hopped from country to country in search of refuge.

Kurds sympathetic to Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, led protests throughout Europe, and guerrillas carried out suicide attacks in Turkey following his arrest.

Turkey has said it will give Ocalan a fair trial. But its judicial process has come under fire by human rights activists, who say Ankara has severely limited Ocalan's access to his lawyers.

The lawyers themselves have complained that they have been intimidated and even beaten by police.

The State Security Court charged with judging Ocalan has also come under criticism because a military judge sits on the bench along with two civilian judges.

Politicians have hinted that the trial may be delayed so that Turkey's parliament can pass legislation replacing the military judge with another civilian.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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