European Parliament Freedom prize laureate Leyla Zana banned from Brussels visit

12.00.00am GMT Mon 2nd Feb 2004

Baroness Sarah Ludford, London MEP and European justice spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, has regretted the refusal of the Turkish authorities to allow Kurdish former MP Leyla Zana to accept the European Parliament's invitation to attend last week's 'Sakharov prize for Freedom' award ceremony in Brussels.

This year's prize went to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, but all previous winners were invited as guests. Leyla Zana was the 1995 prizewinner but she has been in prison for 10 years because of her struggles for Kurdish identity. After the European Court of Human Rights ruled her original trial unfair, she is now undergoing a re-trial, which MEPs have been to Ankara to observe.

Said Sarah Ludford: "MEPs rightly renewed our call for the liberation of Leyla Zana along with other previous winners of our freedom prize, such as Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma and Oswaldo Paya of Cuba, who are equally held captive by the state."

"The Turkish government should demonstrate that it really will implement the announced human rights reforms by releasing Leyla Zana and allowing all Kurds to express their identity; this will help promote a peaceful, democratic solution for Kurds in Turkey and advance the goal - which I strongly support - of Turkey's EU entry".

Leyla Zana was elected to the Turkish Parliament in 1991 but in December 1994, together with other Kurdish MPs, she was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment because she expressed herself in Kurdish. In October 1998 she was sentenced to a further two-year prison sentence because she issued an appeal to her people in an article on the traditional Kurdish New Year in the HADEP party newspaper. The European Parliament has repeatedly called for her unconditional release.

In July 2001 the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey for the way Leyla Zana's trial had been conducted.. After protracted negotiations with the Turkish authorities, MEPs were able to visit her in prison. She has said she hopes to see a general amnesty for all political prisoners and does not wish to be released on health grounds while her political friends remain in captivity. Of the award of the Sakharov Prize she said: "It has given international recognition to my struggle. The aim of that struggle is to establish domestic peace in Turkey and a truly pluralistic, secular democracy which respects the universal values of freedom and human rights. The legitimate rights of the Kurdish people to their own identity must also be recognised'.