Authorities still holding two women reporters with Kurdish news agency

Turkey 2 August 2006

Reporters Without Borders called today for the provisional release of Evrim Dengiz and Nesrin Yazar while they await trial. The two women journalists, who work for the Kurdish news agency DIHA, have been held in pretrial detention since 15 February although they did not commit any crime of violence, the press freedom organisation said.

Their lawyer, Bedri Kuran, has appealed against the decision to keep them in detention before a court in Adana, where the next hearing is to be held on 25 August. They are to be tried by a court of assizes in the eastern city of Malatya on charges of "threat against the unity of the state and territorial integrity," for which they face a possible sentence of life imprisonment.