CNN/AP
April 5, 2001

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Investigators are to question imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan about the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.

A three-person Swedish team accompanied by Turkish prosecutor Huseyin Cinar has
travelled to the prison island of Imrali to follow up allegations of Kurdish involvement in the
killing, Ocalan's lawyers said.

Ocalan has denied any role in Palme's death, but has said that rebels who broke away
from his Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK group, may have had a hand in the
assassination.

Swedish investigators have said they do not consider Ocalan a suspect.

Ocalan -- sentenced to death for treasons -- is the sole inmate on Imrali. He has appealed
against his death penalty to the European Court of Human Rights.

Turkish special forces arrested Ocalan in Kenya in February, 1999 and flew him handcuffed
to Turkey, sparking protests by Kurds across Europe. Some demonstrators set themselves
alight.

More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died in 16 years of fighting between the rebels
and security forces.

Palme, whose government had banned Ocalan's rebel PKK, was gunned down ion a
Stockholm street in 1986.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com