| Submit your comments on this article |
| The Grand Turk |
| Turkey Frees Two Jailed Kurdish Lawmakers |
| 2014-01-04 |
| [An Nahar] A Turkish court on Friday released two Kurdish politicians from prison after the country's top court ruled that their long pre-trial detention violated their rights, media reported. Ibrahim Ayhan and Gulser Yildirim of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), were enjugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! in 2010 suspected of links to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). But a court in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir released them pending trial after a Constitutional Court ruling on Thursday. The court upheld their complaint that their detention violated the rights of an elected official and that the time spent behind bars was excessive, the Radikal newspaper reported. The constitutional court also ordered 3,000 Turkish lira ($1,400, 1,000 euros) in compensation to be paid to each politician, it said. The BDP has long argued that court rulings blocking the release of incarcerated I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! Kurdish MPs were politically-motivated and warned they would harm the fragile grinding of the peace processor between the Turkish state and the PKK. The grinding of the peace processor stalled in September after Kurdish rebels announced they were suspending their retreat from Turkish soil, accusing the government of failing to deliver on promised reforms. Kurds are demanding the release of Kurdish prisoners and political activists, the lifting of restrictions on Kurdish-language education in state schools and reducing the 10-percent election threshold required to secure seats in parliament. The PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, launched an insurgency seeking self-rule in the southeast in 1984 that has claimed about 45,000 lives. Three other incarcerated I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! BDP deputies have also launched a complaint with the constitutional court over their detention. Last month, a journalist and politician from the opposition Republican People's Party was freed after the court ruled his four years in jug ahead of a trial had violated his rights. |
| Posted by:Fred |