Turkey demands 10 years prison to 56 kurdish mayors

Friday June 16th 2006, 11:50 am
Filed under: Journalism , Online news

Dozens of mayors from Turkey's troubled southeast could go to jail for sending a letter to Denmark's prime minister, who said that would go against the values of the EU which Turkey is hoping to join. A state prosecutor has charged 56 mayors with "knowingly and willingly helping" the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) when they urged Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen not to close the Danish-based Kurdish broadcaster Roj TV.

No date has been set for the trial and the criminal court must still accept the charges for the case to go ahead. The mayors could face up to 10 years in jail. Turkey accuses Roj of being a mouthpiece of the separatist PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland. More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in that conflict.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen today told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation that he was "shocked about the charges"

ROJ TV

In support of ROJ TV, I have decided to add the stream to Newspaper Index TV. This means that you can now watch ROJ TV directly from you browser. Click here to watch ROJ TV at http://www.orj.tv