KURDISH GIRL GETS 8 YEARS IN PRISON IN TURKEY

press tv
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:13:27 GMT

A Turkish high criminal court has sentenced an adolescent Kurdish
girl to nearly eight years in prison on charges of hurling stones at
police officers and chanting illegal slogans during a protest in the
southeastern city of Batman.

Police claimed that the 15-year-old Kurdish teenager, Berivan attended
an illegal march in October and concealed her face behind a scarf.

Berivan rejected the accusation saying that she was detained while
going to visit her aunt, Hurriyet newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"I did not hurl stones at police officers. I do not have any relation
with the march. I noticed a crowd and walked towards it to see what
it was. Police surrounded the crowd before I reached them. A policeman
detained me because he thought I was a protester but I was not. I was
just going to visit my aunt living in the central part of the city,"
Berivan said.

The court had originally sentenced her to a total of 13 years in
prison – seven years on charges of committing a crime on behalf of an
outlawed organization, five years on charges of attending an illegal
demonstration, and one year on charges of propaganda for the group.

However, her sentence was commuted to seven years and nine months
because she is an adolescent.

After the judge announced the sentence, the girl’s mother burst into
tears and shouted, "Did she murder? The murderers are not sentenced
to such a long prison term."