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Thu, 15. Jun 2006 15:32:28 +0000
A Kurdish mayor in southeastern Turkey was sentenced to 15 months in jail
Friday for remarks deemed as praise of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah
Ocalan.
Aydin Budak, the mayor of Cizre town in the province of Sirnak, told AFP by
telephone that the court found him guilty of "praising a criminal offender."
He said he would appeal against the sentence.
The case against Budak was launched after a speech he made in Cizre last
year, in which he condemned Ocalan's solitary confinement on the prison
island of Imrali in northwestern Turkey and criticized the authorities for
restricting visits by his family.
Ocalan is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought
for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has
claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Kurdish politicians in Turkey are traditionally suspected of backing the PKK
and are often prosecuted for remarks deemed as a show of support for the
group.
Budak belongs to the main Kurdish political party in Turkey, the Democratic
Society Party.