Turquia. Women in Black made a call for the release of Leyla Zana

By Susana Trejo de Jesús
BRIEFS from CIMAC

Women in Black (WiB), a world-wide network of feminist women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence, made a call for the release of Leyla Zana, who was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for having spoken publicly of the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan.

The sentence, which was handed down April 10, 2008 by the court in the city of Diyarbakir, convicted Zana of making "propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization. Zana has already served 10 years in Turkish prisons, from 1994 to 2004. WiB say that this is "a violent attempt to silence one of the Kurdish personalities that, among others, more has fought for the peace among Kurds and Turks.

WiB made a call on Europe to express strong condemnation for an unjust sentence against Leyla Zana and on Italy to give full priority to the respect of human rights over interests of the market by supporting the request for a moratorium on the sale of Italian weapons to Turkey.