Kurd rebel leader Ocalan not poisoned - prosecutor

ANKARA, Mar 13 (Reuters) Turkish doctors have examined Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and say he is healthy and has not been poisoned in prison, a senior prosecutor said.

Ocalan, former leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is serving a life sentence on a tiny island in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul for his role in an armed rebellion against Ankara's rule in southeast Turkey that began in 1984.

''It has been detected that the poisoning allegations about the convict were completely unfounded,'' the Bursa chief prosecutor's office said in a statement yesterday, referring to a report delivered from Istanbul forensic medicine department.

Ocalan's lawyers last month said they had evidence he was being systematically exposed to toxins that could endanger his life. They asked for an independent medical examination, a call echoed by Kurdish politicians in restive southeast Turkey.

Government spokesman Cemil Cicek, who is also justice minister, said Ocalan had not been poisoned and said the allegations were politically motivated.

''Three doctors who have degrees and expertise in their fields took samples, and examinations by these scientists showed that the allegations were false,'' he told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.

Turkey holds elections this year and some Turkish commentators say Kurdish separatists are trying to push Ocalan back onto the agenda to galvanise support.

Ocalan was originally condemned to death for treason over a conflict that killed more than 30,000 people in the 1980s and 1990s. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

PKK guerrillas are still active in southeast Turkey, some of them crossing from mountain refuges in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq to attack Turkish security forces. But the level of violence is much lower than before Ocalan's 1999 capture.

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