ANKARA - Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek has said, ''Europe should respect for Ankara State Security Court's decision in the retrial of former deputies of the Democracy Party (DEP).''
In an interview with the A.A, Cicek said on Thursday, ''when Turkey requested some European countries to extradite several offenders, they told us that they could not do anything because of judicial independence.''
When recalled that the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly had decided to postpone debates over the report envisaging putting an end to screening process over Turkey because of Ankara DGM's decision about the former deputies of the DEP, Cicek said, ''Turkey has taken all its criminal and legal trial procedures from European countries. In the European Union (EU) main principles of jurisdiction requires respect for decisions of courts. Therefore, Europe should respect for Ankara DGM's decision. The trial process was high on agenda of Europe because of its political characteristics.''
On April 24, Ankara DGM no: 1 ratified former decision of the court against Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, the former deputies of the DEP which was banned by the Constitutional Court, in their retrial process ordering them to serve the remainder of their 15-year prison sentences.
During the first trial, Ankara DGM sentenced Dicle, Zana, Dogan and Sadak to 15 years in prison in accordance with Article 168-2 of the Turkish Penal Code and Article 3713 of the Anti-Terrorism Law.
All four defendants were stripped of their parliamentary immunity, arrested and convicted in 1994 of having links to the terrorist organization of PKK. The four, who have already served 10 years in prison, will be eligible for release in 2005.
(UK-AY) 29.04.2004