Row erupts over jailed Turkey MP

[demoleft]

Source: BBC

An argument is brewing in Turkey over a pro-Kurdish member of the country's new parliament who stood in the recent elections from prison.

Sebahat Tuncel was on trial for membership of an illegal armed organisation linked to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

She was granted immunity when she won a seat in parliament and released from custody earlier this week.

A high-profile Kurdish activist, she stood for election from prison and won - with 90,000 votes.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6920187.stm

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It's becoming a lawyer's battle. On one side opponents say she was not eligible so can't have that seat. On the other, a pro-activist lawyer who says this is a political interpretation of the law aimed to exclude her.

But indeed it's more than that, as tension over military actions between the army and PKK is on the rise.

[Kagemusha]

1. That senior lawyer better be quoting chapter and verse of actual laws.

This "can't be eligible" won't help. Either she was or she wasn't. Then it's a chicken or the egg thing; even if she wasn't supposed to have immunity, if she is truly the legally elected representative, she has the immunity now. If she wasn't eligible to even run, uh well someone messed up, didn't they? In most civilized countries there's means to remove a sitting parliamentarian. The issue may end up being whether she's just the representative-elect or the actual representative, right now this minute.

At least until she gets removed somehow or voted out in the far future.