Your honourable Excellency,

On 4th of December a Turkish court sentenced the politician and Sakharov Prize Laureate Leyla Zana to ten years in prison for "violating" the Turkish penal code and the Turkish anti-terror law in nine different speeches. We as Members of the European Parliament strongly condemn this court decision which is a major set back for the democracy process in Turkey.  We believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right which has to be ensured in a democracy. But unfortunately we witnessed in the past that freedom of expression and also freedom of the press are still not fully protected in Turkey. It is not acceptable that people in Turkey are prosecuted for expressing non-violent opinions. We fear that this court decision, which also revoked Ms Zana’s right to vote and run for political office was a political decision as regional elections will be held in Turkey on 29th of March 2009.   Therefore we hope that you and your government will express your condemnation of this ruling and hope that it will be overturned on appeal.
Awaiting your reply concerning this matter we remain,

Yours sincerely,

Francis WURTZ  President of GUE/NGL
Feleknas Uca GUE/NGL
Luisa MORGANTINI Vice-President of European Parliament   GUE/NGL
Edward MCMILLAN-SCOTT Vice-President of European Parliament  PPE
Sarah LUDFORD Vice-Chairwoman Committee on Human Rights  ALDE
Maria Eleni KOPPA Vice-Chairwoman Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint
Parliamentary Committee PSE
Renate SOMMER Vice-Chairwoman Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint
Parliamentary Committee PPE
Marios MATSAKIS  ALDE
Glenys KINNOCK PSE
Adamos ADAMOU GUE/NGL
Helga TRUEPEL VERTS/ALE
Britta THOMSEN  PSE
Gabriele ZIMMER  GUE/NGL
Göran FÄRM PSE
Heide RÜHLE VERTS/ALE
Konstantinos DROUTSAS GUE/NGL
Eva-Britt SVENSSON  GUE/NGL
Gary TITLEY PSE
Jaromír KOHLÍCEK GUE/NGL
Paulo CASACA  PSE
Daniel STROŽ GUE/NGL
Ana Maria GOMES  PSE
Sahra WAGENKNECHT GUE/NGL
Bernhard POIGNANT  PSE
Anders WIJKMAN PPE
Helmuth MARKOV GUE/NGL
Frieda BREPOELS PPE
Vera FLASAROVÁ GUE/NGL
Johannes LEBECH ALDE
Athanasios PAFILIS GUE/NGL
Helmut KUHNE PSE
Georgios TOUSSAS GUE/NGL
Vladimír REMEK GUE/NGL
Mary HONEYBALL PSE
Mary Lou MCDONALD  GUE/NGL
Bairbre DE BRÚN GUE/NGL
Wolfgang KREISSL-DÖRFLER PSE
Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS GUE/NGL
Margrete AUKEN  VERTS/ALE
Miloslav RANSDORF GUE/NGL
Umberto GUIDONI  GUE/NGL
André BRIE  GUE/NGL
Roberto MUSACCHIO GUE/NGL
Vittorio AGNOLETTO GUE/NGL
Vincenzo AITA GUE/NGL
Giusto CANTANIA GUE/NGL
Kyriacos TRIANTAPHYLLIDES GUE/NGL
Miguel PORTAS GUE/NGL

 

 

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