The refusal of the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, to request extradition of the Kurdish guerrilla leader Mr Abdullah Ocalan last year was blamed yesterday for a wave of violent Kurdish protests in Europe.
The opposition Christian Democrat leader, Mr Wolfgang Schauble, said Mr Schroder should have asked Italy to hand Mr Ocalan over after his arrest at Rome airport last November.
The Interior Minister, Mr Otto Schily, warned of an escalation of violence in Germany following a week of kidnappings and petrolbombings in response to Turkey's capture of Mr Ocalan in Kenya last Monday. German police and security forces have been on top alert.
Italy arrested Mr Ocalan on a German warrant accusing him of arson attacks and heading a crime ring. Rome refused to extradite him to Turkey because he could face the death penalty. Despite the German warrant, Mr Schroder did not take the usual step of issuing an extradition request. German commentators said this was because he feared reprisals from Kurdish militants.
Mr Schauble said that Bonn could have helped to bring Mr Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), before an international tribunal - a solution advocated by many European politicians. "Now we have the worst of all worlds," Mr Schauble told German radio. "He is in Turkey without any guarantee (of a fair trial) or means of influencing Turkey, and we have Kurdish PKK riots across Europe, particularly in Germany."
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, yesterday warned against outside attempts to put pressure on Turkish courts over the Ocalan case. Speaking to reporters in Ankara, he said "those governments who have prevented their own judiciary from performing their functions as a concession to PKK terrorism are not entitled to give lessons in justice to any country".
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, has called on the European Union to issue a call to Turkey to spare Mr Ocalan's life if he were found guilty of terrorism, the daily El Mundo reported yesterday in Madrid. It should "call for Turkey to stand firm in respecting human rights, to organise a fair trial and respect Mr Ocalan's life, because Europe is against the death penalty," Mr D'Alema said. It should also demand a solution to the Kurdish problem, he said in an interview with the paper.
Mr Ocalan was snatched by Turkish agents in Kenya on Monday and brought back to Turkey, where he will stand trial on terrorism charges linked to the PKK's fight for an independent Kurdish state. After his arrest in December in Italy, the D'Alema government eventually set him free, while stopping short of granting him political asylum.
An EU spokesman said yesterday that foreign ministers plan to take up the issue today, and the Council of Europe has announced a forthcoming visit to Turkey to demand guarantees for a fair trial.
Turkey's envoy to Britain, Mr Ozdem Sanberk, told the BBC in London that Mr Ocalan would be judged fairly. "He will receive a fair and open trial," Mr Sanberk said.
In response to problems that foreign lawyers have faced trying to meet the PKK leader, Mr Sanberk said: "He is free to choose his own lawyers among the lawyers registered with the Turkish bar association."