TURKEY:A Turkish court sentenced 53 mayors from a pro-Kurdish party to two and a half months in prison yesterday for a letter they sent to Denmark's prime minister, in a case which raised concern in the European Union.
As the sentence was minor, the court converted it into fines of 1,875 lira (€912) each.
The 53 mayors, from the Democratic Society Party (DTP), were accused of praising Kurdish guerrillas for urging prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen not to close down Roj TV, a Denmark-based Kurdish broadcaster.
Ankara has accused the channel of being a mouthpiece for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it blames for the deaths of some 40,000 people in its two-decade separatist campaign.
Officials from the EU, which Turkey wants to join, and from Denmark, attended the trial. The EU has urged Ankara to improve freedom of expression and the rights of its Kurdish population, estimated at 12 million.
DTP members frequently find themselves in court and the party itself, which operates at local and national level, faces a case aimed at closing it down. The court acquitted three other mayors in the same case, which accused the officials of "praising a crime and a criminal". - ( Reuters )