The third stage of a three-day demonstration for the Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan has begun at the central station in Hannover. The PKK founder was deported to Turkey on 15 February 1999 and has been in solitary confinement since then. The long march in Hanover condemns the international conspiracy that led to Öcalan's arrest. The demonstrators demand his release and draw attention to his role as a politician for peace.

Today's stage began with the reading of the police conditions for the demonstration. Yesterday the police confiscated the front banner because it showed the portrait of Abdullah Öcalan. The banner referred to the prohibition of torture laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The long march in Hannover will end today with a rally in front of the Lower Saxony state parliament.