The European Court of Human Rights
condemned Turkey today for violating the rights of a man who was sentenced to life in prison for giving a pro-Kurdish speech.
Mr Esber Yagmurdereli, a partially-blind lawyer and writer, received a life sentence in 1985 for "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order."
After being released on parole in 1991, he was imprisoned again for spreading "separatist propaganda" in a speech that used the word "Kurdistan" and mentioned the "struggle for democracy and freedom" carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
He was released in January 2001.
At the time, Turkey said that under its 1995 Prevention of Terrorism Act, it had the right to violate a citizen's right to expression if they deemed him a threat to national security.
The human rights court said that Mr Yagmurdereli's conviction "amounted to an interference with his right to freedom of expression" and found it guilty of violating Article 10 of its charter, governing the right to expression.
AFP