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Information About

Leyla Zana





BIOGRAPHY

She was born in May . In 1994 she was awarded the Rafto Prize . In 1998 her sentence was extended because of a letter she had written that was published in a Kurdish newspaper, which allegedly expressed banned pro-separatist views. While in prison she published a book titled ''Writings from Prison''.

With Turkey's position as an applicant to the European Union , the EU repeatedly called for her release on human rights grounds, making its position clear with the award of the 1995 Sakharov Prize . In 2001 the European Court Of Human Rights ruled against Turkey after a review of her trial; although Turkey did not recognize the result, in 2003 a new harmonization law permitted retrials based on ECHR decisions. In 2002, a movie named ''The Back of the World'' examined her case. In April 2004 , in a trial which the defendants frequently boycotted, their convictions and sentences were reaffirmed. In June 2004 , after a prosecutor requested quashing the prior verdict on a technicality, the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals ordered Zana and the others released.

In January 2005 , the European Court of Human Rights awarded Zana and each of the other defendants 9,000 from the Turkish government, ruling Turkey had violated her rights of free expression. Zana and others plan to form a new party and re-enter politics.


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