Turkey: Retrial of Nobel candidate begins

Ms Zana (a former candidate for the Nobel Prize) and her colleagues from the outlawed Democracy Party have been in prison since 1994, after being stripped of their parliamentary immunity and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
After a mistrial, the four were accused of supporting illegal Kurdish insurgent groups and "carrying out intense separatist acts." The former-deputies took their parliamentary oath in Kurdish, at that time a banned language.
Earlier this year, the Turkish government passed a law ordering the retrial of any cases judged by the European Court of Human Rights to be unfair.
In 2001 the European Court ruled that Turkey had violated the basic rights.
Three Members of the European Parliament as well as Commission officials are reported to be following the trial.
According to EU rules, Turkey must respect human rights and the rule of law before it may begin negotiations to enter the Union.