Kurdish rebel leader poisoned in jail: lawyers

ROME (AFP) — Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has been poisoned in jail in Turkey, his lawyers said Thursday, demanding the United Nations dispatch a medical team to investigate.

Ocalan's defence team showed reporters in the Italian capital the results of tests indicating the presence of what they said were toxic metals in the Kurdish leader's hair.

Italian lawyer Giuliano Pisapia said Ocalan was suffering a "progressive poisoning" and ruled out the possibility that the metals had entered his body naturally.

"There are only two other possibilities -- poisoning through his food or through his water," he told a press conference.

Lawyer Mahmut Sakar called on the United Nations and the Council of Europe to send an "independent medical delegation" to examine the PKK chief.

The defence team said they had sent unidentified hair samples to French toxicologist Pascal Kintz, who found levels of chromium seven times higher than ...