ANKARA, March 29 (AKnews) A former Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament has been sentenced to 15 years in jail on charges of propagating for the Kurdish rebel group, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The court heard Serefeddin Halis, a former MP on the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) faction in the Turkish parliament, regarding 10 speeches he delivered in the Turkish parliament during his public life as a lawmaker. The speeches were deemed by the prosecutor general as supporting the PKK which is listed by the state as a terrorist organization. Halis was sentenced by the Third Criminal Court of Agri city after he was found guilty for propagating for the PK in seven speeches because he had said that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan should be treated as an interlocutor in the talks to solve the Kurdish issue in the country. I explained in the speeches I delivered in the parliament that it is necessary for the parties to sit at the negotiation table and involve PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in the talks Halis told AKnews, And this should have been seen within the framework of freedom of expression Halis said he could appeal the court ruling. PKK is an armed group that has been fighting the Turkish state for the past three decades for the freedom of the countrys currently about 20 million Kurds. By Kemal Avci Aknews
