TURKEY: Turkey's appeals court yesterday overturned the conviction of four Kurdish ex-lawmakers and ordered their retrial in a move certain to satisfy the EU, which the state aspires to join.
The four, who include former Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ms Leyla Zana, were jailed in 1994 by a state security court for links to Kurdish guerrillas. They were released last month pending appeal following the government's decision, as part of its EU-inspired reforms, to abolish the state security court system which had previously been used to try political and security-related crimes.
"The decision of the Ankara First State Security Court sentencing ex-lawmakers Leyla Zana, Orhan Dogan, Hatip Dicle and Selim Sadak to 15 years imprisonment has been unanimously overturned," Judge Hasan Gerceker said in televised remarks. The four would have been released in any case next year, having already served two-thirds of their sentence. They will not have to return to jail during the retrial.
"Today's decision is a milestone for Turkey . . . We hope the mentality [of the judges] has changed," said defence lawyer Mr Hamit Geylani, referring to the retrial.
The EU had described the four as "political prisoners" and made clear their continued detention could harm Turkey's hopes of persuading the bloc at a summit in December to open long-delayed entry negotiations.