ANKARA - A total of four former deputies of the Democracy Party (DEP), which was banned by the Constitutional Court, applied to the Ankara State Security Court (DGM) no: 1 with the request of re-trial.
After the law envisaging amendments to some laws which was known as the second European Union (EU) adjustment package in the public opinion, came into force earlier in the day, Yusuf Alatas, the lawyer of former deputies of the DEP, submitted a petition to the Ankara DGM no:1 about re-trial of his clients.
Addressing journalists, Alatas said, ''under the law, which came into force today, if the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rules that Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is violated in any decision of a court, the suspect can request re-trial. Earlier, the ECHR ruled that suspects of the DEP case did not receive a fair trial. We have applied to the Ankara DGM no: 1 with the request of re-trial and release of suspects who were sentenced to imprisonment.''
Previously, Ankara DGM no: 1 sentenced Hatip Dicle and Leyla Zana, the former deputies of the DEP from Diyarbakir province, and Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, the former deputies of the DEP from Sirnak province, to 15 years in prison in accordance with Article 168-2 of the Turkish Penal Code and Article 3713 of the Anti-Terrorism Law on charges of ''staging separatist activities both in Turkey and abroad in line with orders and directives of leaders of the terrorist organization PKK''.
Supreme Court of Appeals Criminal Department no: 9 approved the decision of the Ankara DGM no: 1.
While Zana, Dogan and Dicle detained on March 4, 1994, and arrested on March 17, 1994, Sadak was arrested on July 12, 1994.
According to the law that adds an article to the Code of Civil Procedure (CMUK), if the ECHR rules that Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is violated in any decision of a court, the suspect can request re-trial.