ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish lawmakers adopted a far-reaching penal code reform, clearing a major obstacle to the country`s bid to start accession talks with the European Union.
Parliament speaker Bulent Arinc said the bill was adopted after a show of hands, at the end of an emergency debate called by the government just days before the European Commission issues a crucial report on Turkey`s democratization progress on October 6.
The law, which amends Turkey`s 78-year-old penal code, is widely seen as the last legal reform required to align Turkish legislation with basic EU political norms, set as a condition for the opening of membership talks with candidate nations.
Lawmakers were recalled from summer recess for Sunday`s session after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to drop plans to criminalize adultery in talks with EU officials in Brussels on Thursday, ending a week of crisis with the EU.
The government had shelved the bill last week amid a row with Brussels on whether adultery should be made a jailable offence.
The new penal code expands freedom of expression, grants greater individual freedoms and increases penalties for rights abusers and torturers.
In another major step, it introduces life terms for perpetrators of "honor killings," the feudal practice of killing women perceived as unvirtous, which still persists mainly in the rural southeast.
Other amendments bring jail terms for the sexual molestation of children, the trafficking of human organs and the pollution of the environment.
Even though the legislation has generallly been welcomed as a step forward towards gender equality, women`s groups have slammed several amendments on grounds that they are still discriminatory.
Critics say the draft fails to totally ban virginity tests, maintains an article that could be used to reduce the sentences of perpetrators of "honor killings" and punishes consensual sex between minors.
The president now has to ratify the law.
It will take effect on April 1, 2005, barring a few provisions which will come into force earlier or later.
The lawmakers also adopted two other bills related to the penal code.