Sakharov Network

When the European Parliament awarded Leyla Zana the Sakharov Prize in 1995 on the basis of her courageous defence of human rights and commitment to forging a peaceful, democratic resolution to conflicts between the Turkish Government and its Kurdish population, she had already spent one year in imprisonment.

In the course of defending the rights of her imprisoned husband, Zana had assumed a leadership role which culminated in her candidacy in the Turkish parliamentary elections of 1991. She received 84 percent of the votes in her district of Diyarbakir. At her inauguration, she promised her Kurdish to “struggle so that the Kurdish and Turkish peoples may live together in a democratic framework”.

Based on her speeches and writings in defence of Kurdish rights, Leyla Zana, together with three other Kurdish MPs of the pro-Kurdish Party for Democracy, was charged with being affiliated to the PKK, and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Ankara State Security Court in December 1994.

The government offered in 1997 to release her for health reasons, but Zana refused. “I hope to see a general amnesty for all political prisoners. I do not wish to be released on health grounds while my political friends remain in captivity”.

After the retrial in 2003, which – like the first trial – was considered by the European Court of Human Rights as not being fair and independent, the former Kurdish MPs should serve the remainder of their prison sentences.

However, on 9 June 2004 Turkey’s Appeal Court decided to revoke the verdict and overturn the sentences. On 14 October 2004, Leyla Zana was finally able to address a European Parliament plenary session in person at a special ceremony in Brussels.