Mayor Acquitted as DEHAP Faces New Court

Diyarbakir Metropolitan Mayor Osman Baydemir and three municipality workers were acquitted Wednesday on charges of allocating a municipal ambulance to carry the funeral of a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) while a separate court in Ankara ruled a lack of jurisdiction in a case involving 12 executives of the abolished pro-Kurdish Democratic Peoples Party (DEHAP).

Baydemir and three colleagues were charged at a Diyarbakir Criminal Court of Peace for causing financial damage to the municipality by allowing an official vehicle to be used to transport the funeral of what the state regards as a dead terrorist. They faced 1 years imprisonment each for violating the vehicles law.

In his first and what came to be last hearing in the case, Baydemir told the bench that the charges were leveled at him because of the identity of the dead person who was transported and denied the allegations. All of the defendants maintained they did everything within a legal capacity. Baydemir said it was a humanitarian duty to transport the dead Abdullah Deniz, a PKK member, from his city to Gaziantep for burial.

The court decided to acquit all four defendants in the case.

DEHAP goes to new court

In a separate case heard in Ankara where 12 executives of the now defunct DEHAP were being tried at a High Criminal Court for a previous statement encouraging Turkey to negotiate with outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, a decision of no jurisdiction was taken.

The executives, in abolishing their party, had referred to Ocalan as "Mr. Ocalan" and suggested that a solution to the ongoing Kurdish problem could be found in regarding him as a counterpart to it.

This week the court concluded that the defendants had collectively committed the offence of "publicly praising a crime and criminal" and decided to send the case to the on-duty Court of First Instance where the case will be heard from now on. Previously the party executives faced up to 3 years imprisonment each if they had been found guilty by the High Criminal Court. (KO/II/YE)