| [Pak Daily Times] A Turkish court on Tuesday handed a suspended 10-month jail sentence to the head of the country's main Kurdish party on charges of spreading propaganda for separatist rebels. The judge ruled that Selahattin Demirtas, chairman of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), had "disseminated the propaganda of a terrorist organisation" when he declared in a television interview that jailed rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan was the leader of the Kurdish people. The court in Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the mainly Kurdish southeast, said that part of its decision not to send Demirtas to prison was based upon his good behaviour during the trial. Demirtas, who was not present in court, has the right to appeal the sentence. Defence lawyers had argued that the BDP leader had exercised his right to free speech in the interview, given three years ago to a Europe-based Kurdish channel. The sentence coincides with tentative efforts by the government to find a peaceful solution to a 26-year campaign by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for self-rule in the southeast. |