A Turkish court has sentenced a former deputy of the dissolved Party for Democracy (DEP) to three years in prison on charges of spreading separatist propaganda.
The Diyarbakir Criminal Court on Thursday ruled that former DEP parliamentarian Leyla Zana had "disseminated the propaganda of a terrorist organization" by delivering speeches about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its imprisoned leader in two separate events.
The defendant was not present at Thursday's hearing.
Zana delivered a speech in favor of the PKK during a session organized by the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir sometime between September 20 and 22, 2008. She also spoke at a sit-in-protest in Ankara's Batikent neighborhood on November 1-3, 2008.
The People's Labor Party (HEP) was founded in 1990 when 10 pro-Kurdish members of the Turkish Parliament broke off from the Social Democrats. In 1993, HEP was outlawed for being pro-Kurdish.
Later on, the former members of HEP founded the Democratic Party (DEP), which was outlawed in 1994 and its members formed the People's Democracy Party (HADEP). Turkey's Constitution Court, however, shut down HADEP in March 2003.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, including Turkey, Iran, the US and the European Union member states.
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.
Turkish fighter jets frequently shell PKK strongholds in northern Iraq, where the militants launch attacks against Turkey.
Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122794§ionid=351020204.
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