Famous Kurdish politician Zana gets ten years

ISTANBUL – The well-known Kurdish politician and human rights activist Leyla Zana has been sentenced to ten years imprisonment for ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organization’, according to reports on Turkish TV channel NTVon Thursday.

Zana was sentenced for nine different speeches she made at political gatherings, for example during last year’s election campaign. According to the judge she praised the Kurdish separatist movement PKK. The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States.

Zana had been imprisoned for long terms before because of her activism. She was released in 2004 and was last year elected as independent candidate in the Turkish parliament. Parliamentary privilege doesn’t apply when terror related crimes are involved.

Zana has received several awards for her work, including the Sacharov Prize from the European Parliament in 1995.