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Turkey charges Kurdish ex-deputies for
praising rebel leader
26.1.2006
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ANKARA, Jan 26,
2006 (AFP) - 16h26 - An Ankara prosecutor has
charged two Kurdish former members of the Turkish
parliament with praising jailed rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan, the Anatolia news agency reported
Thursday.
Selim Sadak and Hatip Dicle, former deputies for the
now-banned Democracy Party, could be jailed for up
to two years if convicted over an interview they
gave in September to the Denmark-based Kurdish
television channel, Roj TV.
The report of the indictments came as a group of 25
Kurds in neighbouring Armenia staged a hunger strike
Thursday in protest over Ocalan's detention on the
prison island of Imrali in the Marmara sea south of
Istanbul.
"Recently the Turkish authorities have toughened
Ocalan's detention conditions. His health is
threatened," said organiser Jenia Amirian.
"He is not allowed to see his lawyers. His hour-long
exercise sessions have been forbidden. We want to
bring the attention of international opinion to
Turkey's inhumane behaviour," she said.
The news agency said Dicle and Sadak were accused of
terming Ocalan's jail sentence "isolation" and
asserting that "this will never be accepted by the
Kurdish people" of Turkey.
The pair spent 10 years behind bars with two other
ex-deputies, Orhan Dogan and Leyla Zana, on charges
of backing Ocalan's outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
Freed in June 2004 the four are awaiting trial for a
third time.
The Turkish government accuses Roj TV of being a PKK
mouthpiece.
Ocalan, now 57, was sentenced to death in 1999 for
his role in the PKK's armed struggle for self-rule
in Turkey's mainly Kurdish-populated southeast which
has claimed 37,000 lives since 1984.
His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002
after Turkey abolished capital punishment as part of
reforms to boost its bid to join the European Union.
Last year, Ankara introduced restrictions on
Ocalan's meetings with his lawyers, whom it accused
of carrying orders from the rebel leader to his
militants who have recently stepped up their armed
campaign.
AFP
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