Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has promulgated a new anti-terror law that expands the scope of crimes punishable as "terrorist" acts and introduces restrictions on the media, his office said. Sezer nevertheless deferred the controversial bill to the constitutional court in order to cancel several clauses, the brief statement said without specifying which measures would be removed.Turkey's parliament approved the law on June 29 despite objections from human rights and press groups. They have accused the government of back-tracking on democracy reforms that were introduced in recent years, including measures that eased restrictions on the press, in a bid to boost Turkey's European Union membership bid.
The legislation was proposed following a sharp increase in violence over the past two years by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community. The amendments make a wide range of criminal offences -- from drug- and human-trafficking to hijacking of transport vehicles and forgery -- punishable as terrorist acts if they are committed with the aim of supporting terrorism.