Turkish soldiers get jail for up to 30 months

Eight Turkish defendants captured by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in 2007 have been sentenced to jail terms of up to 30 months.

According to judicial sources, the order was issued by a Turkish military court in the eastern city of Van on Friday.

The sources said that the court sentenced one defendant to 30 months for insubordination and encouraging insubordination and ordered jail terms of 15 and 20 months to the others for negligence and insubordination; however, the lesser sentences were suspended.

The Turkish troops were accused of failing to resist the Kurdish rebels who took them to PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq following an ambush at the village of Daglica on October 21, 2007, which resulted in the deaths of 12 troops.

The PKK militants later handed the Turkish troops over to the Kurdish-run regional government of northern Iraq.

According to critics of the trial, the Turkish soldiers are being punished for "not having died."

The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, including Turkey, Iran, the US and the European Union.

More than 40,000 people have lost their lives since the militant group launched its armed campaign against Ankara in 1984, as part of a quest to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.