A plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg was suspended on Wednesday after a protest in the public gallery disrupted the day's proceedings. Activists threatened to "throw themselves off the balcony" if Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was not released from prison.
While MEPs were debating industrial policy, a dozen or so activists took their seats in the parliament's gallery which is open to members of the public. MEPs were evacuated from the room.
They were displaying flags of Öcalan, co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who has been serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison since 1999. He was charged with treason and separatism over his role in the conflict between the Turkish State and Kurdish nationalists.
As previously reported, international law organizations have raised his case several times and applied to the Turkish authorities to ease the prison restrictions imposed on him. Öcalan was on his run in exile when he was abducted in Kenya in 1999 by the Turkish intelligence agency with the support of foreign agencies.
He is imprisoned at the Imrali island prison in the Marmara Sea close to Istanbul, where he is held in a solitary cell. For the first 10 years he was the only prisoner and guarded by hundreds of soldiers. During most of the hours he is held in solitary confinement. Since 2011, he has hardly been allowed to see his lawyers.
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Marc Botenga, a Belgian MEP of the leftist PTB (The Left in the Europea Parliament), was in attendance and told Belga News Agency "that some activists had climbed over the glass protective wall," which he deemed as dangerous "especially for themselves because if they fell, they would fall down very far."
Hilde Vautmans of the Flemish liberal party Open VLD echoed her colleague's sentiments, stating that the situation "became very aggressive" and "dangerous" adding that "I was afraid someone would fall, then there might have been a death."
Flemish separatist MEP Assita Kanko for N-VA wrote on Twitter: "Never a dull moment in the European Parliament. Because of PKK protesters threatening to jump into the plenary, we cannot vote for the moment. More than 700 MEPs waiting, I found myself a corner in the house."
Due to the security threat, the decision was made to suspend the parliamentary session before 12:00, and had not yet resumed by 14:00.
