77,5 Years of Imprisonment to Peace Group

Seven members of Peace Group who came from Kandil and Mahmur camps in Kurdistan Autonomous Region on October, 2009 are sentenced to 77,5 years of imprisonment in total.

Ayşe Kara, Abdullah Yaman, Zehra Tunç, Sisin Yaman and Ceziya Kabul who came from Mahmur camp are sentenced to 9 years 6 months of imprisonment at Diyarbakır 4. High Criminal Court hearing due to "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" and "committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of that organization". Lütfü Taş and Elif Uludağ who came from Kandil are sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment due to "being a member of an organization", Taş is sentenced to 2 years, Uludağ is sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment due to "making propaganda for an organization". So in total, Taş is sentenced to 14 years, Uludağ is sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment.

Mehmet Adamış, Nizar Buldan and Yusuf Şen turned back to Mahmur Camp as the fugitive defendants of the case.

"They came here to contribute to peace"

At the hearing there were translators for the defendants who don't know Turkish and Fethi Gümüş was the lawyer of the defendants.

According to Vatan newspaper, Gümüş stated that they came here to contribute to peace and he added, "There was a positive welcoming when they arrived. They may come here by instruction however it does not constitute a crime as this instruction was given in order to make contribution to peace."

Co-Deputy Chairman of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Lawyer Meral Danis Beştaş said "They came here to make contribution to peace. Due to negative atmosphere created in the public opinion, they were arrested. This will prevent the others who want to turn back to Turkey."

What had happened?

26 refugees from Mahmur camp, 8 members of PKK from Kandil came to Turkey with the call of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on October 19, 2009 in order to give support to the peace process and the solution to the Kurdish problem. Tens of thousands of people welcomed these people coming from Khabur border gate. The group was released after being interrogated. When they opened the democratic solution to the Kurdish problem issue up for discussion, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan reacted as "It is show off". Democratic Society Party (DTP) was closed; Kurdish politicians and rights activists were sent to prison with Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) operations. 26 members of the group were sued and arrested. The peace groups that would arrive from Europe canceled their plan after all these. (AS)