Hatice Yaşar Freed

Hatice Yaşar, a Kurdish politician who was detained and arrested on Wednesday upon her arrival at Ankara's Esenboğa airport, has been released this afternoon due to lack of evidence, officials said. She was jailed at Sincan Prison in Ankara. 

In the pre-1980 military coup era, Yaşar emerged as one of the prominent leaders in the resolution of Turkey's Kurdish problem. She was an advocate of non-military methods around Ala Rizgari, an organization and newspaper that she led for years. 

In May 1980 Yaşar was forced to leave Turkey and live in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Having taught at Sulaymaniyah University, she had close ties with Jelal Talabani, Iraq's incumbent president. She also acquired citizenship from Austria.

On 5 October 2012 a prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for Hatice Yaşar, charging her with "being a member of armed terror organization", officials said. Along with Yaşar, around 40 PKK leaders including Murat Karayılan, Cemil Bayık, Duran Kalkan, Ali Haydar Kaytan, Zübeyr Aydar, Remzi Kartal and Osman Öcalan have been put on the arrest list. (NV/BM)