Serdar Tanis and Ebubekir Deniz, two leaders of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP ) in Silopi (province of Sirnak, eastern Turkey) disappeared while in gendarmerie detention in January 2001.

They had been called to the Silopi Gendarmerie Command on 25 January and have not been heard from since.

Protest against disappearance

Having marked their disappearance with a "silent sit-down", the Siirt province president of HADEP's successor party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), Abdurrahman Tasci was arrested with 39 other people.

They were accused of breaching Law No. 2911 on Meeting and Marches. Thirty people were acquitted and ten convicted. Nine of the latter were arrested at different times.

Tasci had been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months imprisonment, and his sentence has now been confirmed, leading to his arrest.

DTP protests against arrest

The DTP general head office has released a statement reacting to the arrest: "Hundreds of leaders and members of our party have been put into prison under flimsy pretexts and in an illegal manner, just for using their legal rights of freedom of expression and organisation."

"The arrest is a shameful event for our country and it shows the hypocrisy of our democracy and laws."

The DTP has demanded that Tasci and other party leaders be released immediatedly and that there be an end to the "lawlessness experienced".

ECHR: Compensation for disappearance

In August 2005, the European Court of Human Rights had ordered Turkey to pay a total of 150,000 Euros compensation for the disappearance of Tanis and Deniz. (EÖ/NZ/AG)