Rebecca Harms, spokeswoman on foreign affairs and Turkey expert of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, on the release of Deniz Yücel and today's verdict of a Turkish court in the case against the Altan brothers and four other journalists:
"The positive news of Deniz Yücel's release, which makes me very happy for him and his wife, is overshadowed by the cruel verdict of life-long solitary confinement for six of his Turkish journalist colleagues, including Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, and Nazli Ilicak. These rulings are a terrible blow to all concerned journalists and all those who face similar unfounded charges and have been detained in Turkey for months and years now. I repeat my urgent call to the European Court of Human Rights to finally rule on these cases without any further embarrassing delay. The EU and its Member States must try much harder to have an impact on Turkey. The EU needs to be ready to use its economic weight to push Turkey to a return to the rule of law and respect for human rights."
Photo: http://platform24.org/en/articles/583/altans-and-ilicak-trial-draws-to-a-close
