Turkey cited for unfair trial of Kurdish deputy Leyla Zana 

STRASBOURG, July 17 (AFP) - 17h46 - The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday
 that jailed Kurdish former deputy Leyla Zana and three other ex-members of parliament had
 received an unfair trial in Turkey.

 The four were sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Ankara State Court in 1994 for separatist
 activities and links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of Abdullah Ocalan.

 The PKK took up arms against Ankara in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in the predominantly
 Kurdish southeast.

 The court ruled Tuesday there had been a violation of article 6 of the European Convention on
 Human Rights because the Ankara court, which included a military judge, was not "an
 independent and impartial tribunal."

 "The court further held, unanimously, that the applicants' rights ... had been violated, in that
 they were not informed in time of modifications to the charges against them and that they had
 not been able to have key witnesses questioned," a statement from the court said.

 In their petition, the four had complained that they were convicted of "putting forward, as
 parliamentarians, the views of the Kurdish population in Turkey and of having developed peaceful
 solutions to the Kurdish problem."

 The court, in a unanimous decision, ordered that each plaintiff receive 25,000 dollars (29,400
 euros) in damages and 10,000 dollars in expenses.

 The court decided not to rule on other complaints from the four related to freedom of expression,
 freedom of association and the ban on discrimination.

 Diplomatic sources said the ruling could lead the 43-member Council of Europe to demand a
 review of the cases of Zana, Selim Sadak, Hatip Dicle and Ohran Dogan, that could result in
 their release from jail.

 All four were members of parliament and belonged to the now-defunct Democracy Party (DEP).

 Zana, who is currently in Ulucanlar prison in Ankara where she has been visited several times
 by European parliamentarians, received the European Parliament's Sakharov freedom of thought
 award while in prison in 1995.

 The DEP's 15 members of parliament, among them Zana, entered parliament on a social
 democratic ticket in 1991 and caused an uproar by taking their oaths in Kurdish instead of
 Turkish, the official language.

 Three years later, the party was banned with some of its administrators being sentenced to jail
 for collaborating with the PKK and some fleeing to Europe in anticipation of lengthy jail terms.