A Turkish court Tuesday convicted three people of membership in the outlawed organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and gave them prison sentences ranging from life to 12 1/2 years, the Anatolia news agency reported, cited by Turkish Daily News.
Two of the men were sentenced to life in prison. They were also convicted of attacking public vehicles, burning schools and extorting money for the PKK, Anatolia reported.
The third was convicted of membership in the terror organization and received the 12 1/2 year sentence.
According to the paper, Turkey has rejected the cease-fire and has vowed to keep on fighting “until all terrorists surrender or are killed.”
In a report by AFP early March, a prosecutor in Istanbul sought up to four years in jail for the director of a publishing house for printing a book by condemned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
In his indictment, the prosecutor accused Eylem Tandogan, who heads the Mem publishing house, of "aiding and abetting a terrorist organization" and "spreading propaganda aimed at harming the indivisibility of the Turkish Republic," the report said.
The book, "How to live,” was penned by Ocalan, in 1996, but was published in Turkey only in December last year, long after he was put in solitary confinement in a Turkish island prison.
The two-volume book consists mainly of the rebel leader's personal opinions and criticism of the traditional structure of the Kurdish society.
Ocalan was captured in Kenya in an undercover operation and hauled back to Turkey in February 1999 to face trial for leading an armed campaign for self-rule in southeast Anatolia.
He was sentenced to death for treason in June 1999, but his execution was put on hold by Ankara in January last year to allow the European Court of Human Rights to rule on his complaints against his arrest.
Ocalan later called for peace and the PKK declared an end to its 15-year war in September 1999 and promised to seek a peaceful and democratic resolution to the conflict.
But the powerful Turkish military has snubbed the PKK's truce as a "ploy by the terrorist organization" and has called on the rebels to surrender or face the army – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
