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Turkish court sentences retired imam to prison
A Turkish court sentenced a retired imam to 2-1/2 years in prison on Tuesday, convicting him of spreading terrorist propaganda with a speech he gave at a demonstration.
- Reuters
- Published: 16:24 May 13, 2008
Diyarbakir: A Turkish court sentenced a retired imam to 2-1/2 years in prison on Tuesday, convicting him of spreading terrorist propaganda with a speech he gave at a demonstration.
Islamic preacher Muhittin Eryilmaz was convicted by a court in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir for a speech he gave at a protest against a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq in February aimed at Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
Eryilmaz, whose lawyer said he will appeal against the conviction, said he was trying to avoid bloodshed.
Anti-terrorism laws are often used, particularly in the mainly Kurdish southeast, to put politicians and others on trial for comments perceived as favouring the PKK.
The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, has expressed concern about restrictions on freedom of expression under anti-terrorism legislation.
Eryilmaz used the word "guerrilla" to refer to members of the PKK, which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation responsible for some 40,000 deaths since the start of the group's campaign for an ethnic homeland in 1984.
He also referred to northern Iraq as "South Kurdistan" - seen as undermining the integrity of the Turkish state - while notebooks in his house contained comments justifying the PKK, court documents showed.
In February, the Turkish armed forces launched an eight-day cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to fight PKK rebels based there, and has continued to carry out air strikes on rebel targets since.
Turkish troops are also fighting the group - which the United States and EU also consider a terrorist organisation - in the rugged mountains of southeast Turkey.
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