Four newsmen and five human rights activists involved in securing and covering the release of a Turkish soldier kidnapped by the PKK are to be tried at High Criminal Court unless their appeal is accepted. Prosecutor currently demands 5 years jail for each

Diyarbakir prosecutors have demanded 9 years imprisonment for IHD Provincial Chairman Selahattin Demirtas due to remarks he made on Gun TV and Roj TV. Demirtas is accused of propaganda for terror organization.

Chief of Staff Prosecutors Office charges retired General Tokat for public revelation of ordering clandestine street bombings in Southeast Turkey. Rights activists insist retired commander should be put on trial for human rights violations.

Public Prosecutors Office probes Ankara Bar Association in wake of decision to halt all obligatory counsel services as of Wednesday, following governments failure to pay up. Association executives face possible charges of authority abuse.

A Turkish police superintendent has filed a court case to annul a circular granting immunity from police detention to soldiers and armed forces members even if they are caught red handed while committing crimes out of uniform.

Lawyer and leading children rights activist Akco analyses Turkeys obligatory counsel crisis as bar associations nation-wide stop free legal aid in lack of government funding: The problem is the state policy which is based on the sacrifice of lawyers.

Human Rights Association says plainclothes officers provoked incidents during anti-Israel protest in Istanbul where police used excessive force. They beat the demonstrators. Police threw gas bombs anywhere there were people moving.

Turkeys Human Rights Foundation calls on Justice Ministry to allocate resources for free counseling in wake of TTB decision to halt services due to lack of funding. The right to access to counsel means prevention of torture. Its the governments duty t

Istanbul court acquits novelist-journalist Perihan Magden on charges of discouraging people from military service. Magden was indicted for 2005 magazine article Constientious Objection Is A Humans Right.

A number of union members and executives were injured in a police attack when they attempted to hold a press conference in protest of layoffs. Witnesses say injuries result of gas bombs. Turkeys Transport Workers Union has condemned attack.

Union of Bar Associations is halting all free counseling services for defendants charged under the Criminal Procedures Code on August 1, following Ministry failure to cover costs. Thousands of defendants who cant afford lawyers are at loss.

Prosecuted Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart and Mithat Kabaali, the judge who acquitted him on charges of insult, have received the TGC 2006 Press Freedom Awards. Kabaali says I did whatever was required for the supremacy of justice.

Initiative for Freedom Expression leads meeting in Gezi Park using mobile phones to call and SMS MPs asking for article 301 of and Anti-Terror Law to be abolished. Most deputies reject incoming calls while some promise to look into the matter.

A leading association on children rights has warned that the governments failure to pay for free counseling services prompting an end to the practice next month, will victimize minors threatened by torture and mistreatment and affect all defendants.

Local Prosecutor demands 3.5 years for daily Birgun newspaper Sunday supplement editor Gokhan Gencay for discouraging the public from military service. Charge relates to an interviwev published in the paper with a conscientious objector.

Initiative For Freedom of Expression expand civil disobedience action through public declaration denouncing themselves as co-offenders of journalist Dink after appeals court upholds a suspended 6 month sentence criminalizing his article in Agos weekly

Turkeys Journalists Association (TGC) 2006 Press Freedom Awards goes to cartoonist Musa Kart for his prosecuted caricature depicting PM Erdogan as an entangled cat as well as Eskisehir Chief Justice Mithat Ali Kabaali who acquitted him.

Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dinks lawyer Fethiye Cetin says they will take his suspended 6 months prison sentence to the European Court of Human Rights. Cetin expresses sorrow for justice system, noting that the opportunity to s

TGC, TSYD, Gaziantep Journalists Association, Gaziantep chambers of Commerce and Industry condemn attack on Gaziantep 27 newspaper owner Okkes Ozeksi and wife, demand culprits to be apprehended and charged. Ozeksi in intensive care has brain surgery.

Contemporary Jurists Association reveals that 50 women prisoners who were being transferred from one prison to another were severely beaten and abused by guards onthe wa. One prisoner attempts suicide after transfer.