|
ANKARA, April 22 (AFP) - 19h32 - A Turkish court
reviewing the 1994 sentences of four prominent
Kurdish politicians came under fire from a defense
attorney Friday for being unfair and protracting the
decade-old legal saga watched closely by the
European Union.
A lawyer for award-winning rights activist Leyla
Zana and three other former Kurdish MPs accused of
aiding armed Kurdish rebels said after the fourth
hearing in the case that the court was insisting on
flawed procedures that had led to the retrial of the
defendants.
Yusuf Alatas said he asked the prosecution to
clarify the charges against his clients and modify
the indictement and the related evidence submitted
to the court in line with reforms undertaken
recently to bring Turkish law closer to EU norms.
"The court has not moved an inch forward," Alatas
told AFP. "They are forcing us to make our defense
in muddy waters."
The court adjourned the trial to May 23 to give the
prosecution time to consider the defense's
complaints.
Zana and her co-defendants have already been
condemned twice -- first in 1994 and then in April
last year after the European Court of Human Rights
declared their original trial unfair.
Turkey's appeals court also ruled last year that the
charges against the defendants were not clearly
formulated, that key witnesses were not questioned
and crucial evidence was ignored.
Zana and her colleagues -- Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak
and Orhan Dogan -- were released from jail in June
after 10 years behind the bars.
The four, who were absent from Friday's hearing, are
unlikely to go back to prison even if the court
confirms their sentences because of the time they
have already served.
Their convictions have been condemned by
international rights campaigners as a result of
Ankara's efforts to silence even peaceful advocates
of Kurdish rights.
The EU has also adopted them as prisoners of
conscience, and the European Parliament awarded Zana
its prestigious Sakharov human rights award in 1995.
The prosecution has accused the four of aiding
separatist Kurdish militants who have fought the
Ankara government since 1984 and encouraging Kurdish
youths to join rebel ranks to fight for an
independent Kurdish state.
AFP
Top |
® 