Ocalan, standing in a bullet-proof glass box in the Imrali prison island courtroom, showed no reaction as senior judge Turgut Okyay told him he must hang. The verdict, however, will reverberate around the country and could raise fears of Kurdish activist violence in Western Europe.

``(He has) murdered thousands of innocent people without regard to babies, children, women or the elderly,'' said Okyay, wearing a traditional black robe with high, scarlet collar.

``His activities constitute a serious, immediate and great danger to the country,'' he added.

The moustached Ocalan, dressed in a brown double-breasted jacket with open neck shirt, listened to the judge impassively, his eyes darting from side to side occasionally.

After the verdict, approved by all three judges, was announced the courtroom resounded to arendering of the Turkish national anthem. Mothers of soldiers killed in the fighting held up portraits of their sons towards Ocalan.

Police have stepped up security throughout the country for fear of retaliation by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group Ocalan led through 14 years of fighting. In Western Europe there were fears of a repetition of Kurdish activist violence that accompanied Ocalan's capture.

During the month-long trial Ocalan has swung between breathtaking declarations of loyalty to the republic he had so long fought, and threats of thousands more deaths if he is hanged. He offered to bring his fighters down from the mountains if spared the rope but spoke of 5,000 suicide bombers willing to die for him if he mounted the gallows.

Italy and Germany were at loggerheads with Turkey late last year after Ocalan, driven from cover in Syria by a vigorous Turkish diplomatic campaign, was arrested at Rome airport.

Italy refused to extradite him to Turkey, citing its opposition to thedeath penalty, and Germany declined to press an arrest warrant issued years before. Ocalan, with Turkey on his heels, fled again, via Russia and Greece, finally seeking sanctuary at the Greek embassy in Nairobi.

How Ocalan was played into the hands of Turkish special forces there is still a matter of speculation. But when first pictures of Ocalan, blindfolded and handcuffed on a Turkish aeroplane appeared on television, for a stunned nation there were few questions.