US embassy cable - 04ANKARA1559

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Identifier:	04ANKARA1559
Wikileaks:	View 04ANKARA1559 at Wikileaks.org
Origin:	Embassy Ankara
Created:	2004-03-16 10:45:00
Classification:	UNCLASSIFIED
Tags:	PGOV PHUM PREL TU
Redacted:	This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.

UNCLAS ANKARA 001559 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PREL, TU 
SUBJECT: LEYLA ZANA, CO-DEFENDANTS BOYCOTT TRIAL 
 
 
REF: ANKARA 1155 AND PREVIOUS 
 
 
1. (U) Leyla Zana and three other Kurdish former MPs declined 
to attend the March 12 hearing of their retrial, a protest 
against reported comments by Justice Minister Cicek accusing 
them of "insulting" the court.  Lead defense attorney Yusuf 
Alatas said the defendants will not attend any more hearings. 
 He said they were offended by a March 4 article in the daily 
Hurriyet in which Cicek is quoted as telling European 
Parliament President Pat Cox that the defendants have not 
been released pending the outcome of the retrial because they 
continue to insult the court during the hearings.  The court 
March 12 refused, for the 12th consecutive time, a defense 
request that the defendants be released for the duration of 
the retrial. 
 
 
2. (U) The defendants -- Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan 
Dogan, and Selim Sadak -- are former members of the 
pro-Kurdish independence Democracy Party.  They were 
convicted in a controversial 1994 trial of membership in an 
illegal organization (the PKK).  Their retrial, which began 
March 2003, is the first retrial under recent reform 
legislation allowing convicts who win their appeal to the 
ECHR to receive a new trial in a Turkish court. 
EDELMAN