497 people have applied to the Izmir Bar Torture Prevention Group in the last 2 years saying they were tortured. According to a report, 67 of them were women, and 121 of them were under 18. 383 police are being charged with torture in 97 trials.

An appeals court upheld the 15-month prison sentence handed to Albayrak of daily Milli Gazete, in line with the law to protect Ataturk. The court wanted the same prison sentence, handed to editor-in-chief Terzi, to be commuted to a fine.

RTUK ordered a program on CNN Turk off the air for once, for violating advertising rules. ATV was handed a penalty for hurting the development of the youth with the program A to Z with Esra Ceyhan. RTUK handed TGRT and Show TV three warnings each.

The International Publishers Association (IPA) and International PEN organized two round tables on the occasion of the 60th Session on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland.

As in the Madonna song, if Turkish Cypriots could `melt the heart` of Greek Cypriots for a YES so that they would not be `apart`... But there is no time left for that...

International PEN, alongside the International Publishers Association, is monitoring the trials against more than 40 such books and publications that have been brought to the courts during the past year.

TRNC President Rauf Denktas said May God Cherish Russia after Russia vetoed the draft resolution about Cyprus, at the UN Security Council.

A court convicted Zana and three former Kurdish deputies of having links to rebels in their retrial, ordering them to serve the remainder of their 15-year prison sentences.They have already served 10 years in prison, would be eligible for release in 2005.

EP ad hoc delegation chair Lagendijk: We are convinced that the State Security Court cannot guarantee the impartiality of the legal proceedings against Leyla Zana and her colleagues and therefore approve the Governments plan to abolish this body.

There was no presumption of innocence, the defense was not treated equally with the prosecution and the independence of the court is questionable at best, Besharaty-Movaed, legal advisor for the Centre for the independence of Judges and Lawyers said.

Although Amnesty International believes that the former deputies Zana, Dicle, Dogan and Sadak should have been released unconditionally, the retrial offered the opportunity to end the injustice of their continued imprisonment.

State Security Court sentences former DEP deputies of Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak to 15 years imprisonment terms each in their re-trial.