Turkish parliament passes amnesty legislation

It was the second time the bill had been passed, with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer having vetoed the first bill last week on the grounds that it was unjust and unfair.

The conditional amnesty legislates for a 10-year reduction for a variety of crimes, including murder and those found guilty of "helping and harbouring" the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) but not those convicted of being actual members of the PKK.

Most of those who have been on a hunger strike that led to raids on 20 prisons around the country will not benefit from the legislation. Neither will Esber Yagmurdereli, a human rights activist, nor Leyla Zana a former member of parliament who won the European Parliament's 1995 Sakharov Peace Prize.

One person who will will benefit from the legislation would be former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who has been sentenced to one year's imprisonment for a speech in which he "provoked enmity by dividing people along racial, class, sect and religious lines".

With the parliament having passed the legislation unchanged once again, Sezer will be forced to sign the bill into law but he is expected to send it to the Constitutional Court, where it could be declared unconstitutional.

Analysts say the court could conceivably expand the bill to include all prisoners, including PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. That would be fiercely opposed by the government. While Ocalan would not be released under the amnesty he could see his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment if the court does decide that the law must cover all prisoners.

(la/dpa)