Istanbul - Lawyers for captured Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said yesterday they would withdraw from the case unless conditions were improved for them and their client, now being held on a Turkish prison island. Their withdrawal could leave Ocalan, if he rejects any state-appointed alternatives, to conduct his own defence on treason charges which carry the death penalty. Lawyer Mr Ahmet Zeki Okcuoglu repeated allegations that police entrusted with the lawyers' security had beaten them with batons after a preliminary Ankara court session on Friday.