20 former members of the defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP) were found guilty of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" and each sentenced to ten months behind bars. The charges stem from their attendance of a sit-down strike organized by the closed pro-Kurdish DTP in Batıkent/Diyarbakır in 20008.

On Tuesday (15 March), the 5^th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır, a province capital in the Kurdish-majority south-eastern part of the country, decided to acquit three of the altogether 23 defendants. 20 people were sentenced to imprisonment of one year under allegations of "spreading propaganda for the PKK", the illegal armed Kurdistan Workers' Party. Their sentences were then mitigated to ten months each due to good conduct.

The court claimed that "slogans supporting the organization were chanted by people in the group that had gathered in front of the tent" and "music that praised the organization was played in the vicinity". The 20 defendants "did not do anything to prevent this development, made it run more smoothly and showed corresponding footage on an LCD screen", the court stated.

The three-day sit-down strike was done with the aim to protest the allegedly violent treatment of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the PKK.

"Some of the convicts were not even in the area at the time"

As lawyer Tahir Elçi told bianet, the people convicted were provincial chairs who had been appointed to obtain the necessary permission of the police and provide logistic support. Elçi drew attention to the fact that some of them were not even in the area at the time.

The lawyer emphasized that none of the defendants was involved in any kind of "propaganda" throughout the protest action.

The defendants were also tired under allegations of "committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of the organization". However, the court decided to acquit all defendants of these charges. (EÇ/EÖ/VK)