Case against Kurdish Politician Leyla Zana Retried

The 6^th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır, a Kurdish majority-city in south-eastern Turkey, retries the case of Leyla Zana, former deputy of the closed pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP), after the Court of Appeals reversed the judgement of the local court. Zana had received a prison sentence of two years based on charges of "spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization".

New prosecutor's plead on 12 October

The case was reopened on 16 June. The Diyarbakır court complied with the decision of the Court of Appeals and sent the file to the Public Prosecutor in order to have a new plead of the prosecution.

Zana's lawyer Meral Danış Baştaş told bianet that the case was postponed to 12 October. The prosecutor will also prepare the final submission subsequent to the reviewed plead.

Acquitted of charges pressed based on defence speech

On 21 March 2007, Leyla Zana had delivered a speech at the Newroz celebrations, the festival to welcome the arrival of spring and to mark the Iranian New Year. She had called Jalal Talabani, the current President of Iraq and a leading Kurdish politician, Massoud Barzani, current President of the pre-dominantly Kurdish region of northern Iraq and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the "three leaders of the Kurdish people".

The case had initially been filed under charges of "acting on behalf of and membership of a terrorist organization" according to article 7 of the Anti-Terror Law. In the course of the trial, charges of "praising crime and a criminal" were additionally pressed against Zana because of statements made in her defence speech. However, Zana was acquitted of the latter charges. (EÖ/VK)