Poverty Protestors Sentenced

A Turkish court sentenced 18 people, who attended a press announcement by the Labor Platform, to a year and six months in prison, saying they violated Turkey's demonstration laws.

Some 20,000 people had attended the press announcement held in Istanbul's Beyazit Square, as part of Labor Platform's campaign against poverty and corruption. The press announcement was held on March 31, 2001.

The union of municipality and local administration workers (Tum Bel Sen) said their Secretary-General Huseyin Ayyildiz was among those sentenced to prison.

The union criticized the court's decision and said: "On the one hand, we are amending our laws to harmonize them with those of the European Union, and on the other hand, all these are happening openly."

Teacher sentenced to four months in prison

Teacher Fulya Barut, who participated in a strike on December 1, 2000 to protest government policies, was sentenced to four months in prison.

Twenty-three teachers who participated in the same strike were all sentenced to four months in prison. They are also banned from teaching for an addition of three months. The decision is based on Turkey's Penal Law, which bans teachers from participating in strikes.

The court later postponed sentences of all teachers except the sentence of Fulya Barut, saying she had participated in strikes before. (BB/EA/NM)