Intervention of the President of the European Parliament for the release of Leyla Zana.

SESSION OF MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2003

Intervention of the President of the European Parliament for the release of Leyla Zana.

Karamanou (PSE) . – Mr. President, I would like to bring the following to your attention: a few days ago, I visited Turkey along with a delegation of six Members of the European Parliament. First of all, we were pleased to see that significant progress has been made in recent months regarding Turkey’s alignment with the Copenhagen criteria.

However, I would like to emphasize that for nearly ten years now, the former MP Leyla Zana has been held in prison. When the political freedoms and rights of Mr. Erdoğan were violated while he was mayor of Istanbul, here, in this chamber, we defended his human rights and political freedoms. Therefore, we expect this new government to show sensitivity regarding the respect for human rights and, in any case, Mr. President, I believe it is unacceptable for a Sakharov Prize laureate to have been in Turkish prisons for ten years now.

Therefore, I ask for your immediate political intervention with the Turkish government for the release of Leyla Zana, for her immediate and unconditional release from prison.