Prosecutors Seek Jail For 54 Kurdish Mayors
Reuters, Dec 12, 2007- Turkish state prosecutors demanded jail
sentences yesterday for 54 mayors in southeastern Turkey for suggesting that
jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan,
may have been poisoned.
The prosecutors said the mayors had "praised" Ocalan and his actions -- a crime
in Turkey -- at a joint news conference in March when they asked the authorities
to investigate claims that the terrorist leader was gradually being poisoned in
prison. Ocalan was captured in 1999 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The 54 mayors, all from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), are
standing trial and could face up to two years in prison if convicted.
Turkish doctors examined Ocalan after the claims that he was being
systematically exposed to toxins that could threaten his life, but found no
evidence of any poisoning.
The 54 mayors are also on trial over a letter they wrote to the Danish prime
minister urging him to resist Turkish pressure to shut down the pro-separatist
Roj TV.
