The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, said yesterday the trial of the Kurdish guerrilla leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, would be fair and could proceed quickly.
Mr Ecevit's spoke followed the denial of entry to Turkey of Dutch-based lawyers for Mr Ocalan when they arrived at Istanbul airport on Tuesday night.
One of them, a Turk, was detained in Istanbul and taken to an unknown place, a member of the group, Ms Britta Boehler, said yesterday. Ms Boehler, a German lawyer, refused to give the Turkish lawyer's name, saying this could put his life in jeopardy.
Mr Ecevit said: "It will be a very free, a very just trial because justice is very free in Turkey, autonomous. The government has no right to interfere in any court procedures."
"It need not last too long because all the illegal actions, the crimes of the PKK's [Kurdistan Workers Party] leadership are well known," he said.
A judicial source said three cases against Mr Ocalan on charges of separatist activity were already running, in absentia, in Ankara and the eastern cities of Diyarbakir and Erzurum.
Mr Ecevit said Mr Ocalan had been taken to the Imrali prison island in the Sea of Marmara from where the other inmates were being evacuated.
Ms Boehler told reporters at Amsterdam airport that the treatment of the lawyers "proves to the whole world that my client's trial will not be a fair trial," and described as "total nonsense" the Turkish authorities' contention that she and her team behaved "like PKK militants".
She expressed great anxiety for the fate of her client.
"If he is still alive, he is being tortured," she said.
"We are telling Turkey: we are on this case and we intend to stay on it. It is important Turkey knows that."
The judicial source said Turkey was well aware that such cases, closely monitored by western human rights groups, invariably ended up in the European Court.
"The greatest care will be taken to make sure there can be no question over this trial," the source said.
Mr Ocalan stands accused over the deaths of 29,000 people in a 14-year armed campaign including killings of state officials and their families.
Mr Ecevit said he was against capital punishment which has not been carried out used in Turkey since 1984.