(Freedom House/IFEX) – According to Freedom House, it has been reported that an Italian reporter arrested in southeastern Turkey during a Kurdish separatist protest last month faces up to three years in jail if convicted of links to Kurdish guerrillas, lawyers said on 13 April 1998. “The prosecutors’ office has asked for my client to […]
(Freedom House/IFEX) – According to Freedom House, it has been reported that
an Italian reporter arrested in southeastern Turkey during a Kurdish
separatist protest last
month faces up to three years in jail if convicted of links to Kurdish
guerrillas, lawyers said on 13 April 1998. “The prosecutors’ office has
asked for my client to be jailed for between one to three years”, Muharrem
Erbey, the journalist’s lawyer, said in the
southeastern city of Diyarbakir. That city’s main prosecutor accused
journalist Dino Frisullo in an indictment of provoking “hatred and enmity
among people”, Erbey said.
Frisullo and two other Italians were detained by police last month at a
march in
Diyarbakir to mark Newroz spring holiday, a traditional time of Kurdish
protests.
Turkey deported two of the three after Italy protested the detentions. Erbey
said he believed the reporter had not committed any crime and he would apply
to the court
for his release. It was not immediately clear when his trial would start.
The European Parliament has warned that the case could further damage
Turkey’s
bid to join the European Union.
