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Leyla Zana sentenced to 3 years in prison
The Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court ruled yesterday on two speeches that Zana made in September and November of 2008 at a pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) congress and a demonstration. Zana and her lawyer did not appear in court at the session.
The court ruled that Zana had spread propaganda and convicted her in accordance with Article 7/2 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The court also ruled that the defendant intentionally committed the crime and therefore she should be banned from politics until she completes her sentence.
Zana had read the final statement of the DTP congress in Diyarbakır on Sept. 20-22, 2008, leading to her conviction: “Our congress condemns the policies of suppression, torture and isolation of the Kurdish public leader Abdullah Öcalan and adopts a policy of continued struggle against it.”
She was referring to the jailed leader of the PKK, Öcalan, who is currently imprisoned on İmralı Island.
She made another speech at the DTP’s Nov. 1-3, 2008, demonstrations in Diyarbakır where she called on the Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan to go to İmrali and “shake hands with peace.”
Zana gained prominence in 1991 for taking part of her oath of office in Parliament in Kurdish, a language not recognized as an official language in Turkey. She was convicted in 1994 by the State Security Court (DGM) of links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU.
In 2004, she was released after an appeals court overturned her conviction.
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