Courts refuses to release KCK suspects

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

In a March 16 statement, the KCK had announced that it was no longer recognizing the Turkish government as an addressee for the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan in the ongoing peace process.

The 2nd Heavy Penal Court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır refused on March 17 to release 91 suspects in the main case against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Lawyers of the suspects had filed a request for releases on the grounds that the recent changes in the country’s anti-terrorism laws reduced the maximum pre-trial detention period from 10 years to five years. The change had led to several releases in the Ergenekon coup plot case.

The Diyarbakır court, however, refused the request, arguing that there was a risk that some suspects could join the organization’s “mountain staff,” referring to militants in the countryside. The amount of time that the suspects have spent under arrest is “reasonable and measured,” the court ruled.

In a March 16 statement, the KCK had announced that it was no longer recognizing the Turkish government as an addressee for the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan in the ongoing peace process. It accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of not taking “the necessary steps toward democratization.”