Sebahat Tuncel was jailed 9 months ago
on charges of belonging to the PKK.
|
Kurdish activist was released from prison after she won a parliamentary seat
and was granted immunity from prosecution.
A Kurdish activist was released from prison on Tuesday after she won a
parliamentary seat and was granted immunity from prosecution on charges of
belonging to a militant separatist group.
More than 1,000 supporters of Sebahat Tuncel, who gained a seat in
parliament on Sunday as an independent candidate, awaited her release,
holding portraits or banners of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), of which
she is a member.
More than one hundred police, some in riot gear, looked on.
"I want to thank the people who voted for me and I hope to rise to the
challenge of my duty. Our fight for democracy will continue," Tuncel told
reporters.
She and 23 other pro-Kurdish independent candidates voted into office will
sit in the same chamber as the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, which
accuses them of having a separatist agenda and working with the PKK, which
Turkey considers a terrorist organisation.
Tuncel was jailed nine months ago and put on trial on charges of belonging
to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting a
bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast since 1984.
The DTP-backed
independents plan on creating a group once in office and have promised to
introduce language reforms that would bring Kurdish into public schools and
require public servants in Turkey's southeast to know the language.
"The criminal prosecution has been temporarily stopped. When her duty is
over as parliamentarian, the prosecution will continue," her lawyer Baran
Dogan told Reuters.
Speaking from the car that led her away she said she would work with members
of the Nationalist Movement Party when Parliament convenes in August. |
