TURKEY: A Turkish court ruled yesterday that four former lawmakers jailed in 1994 for links to Kurdish rebels must remain in prison during their retrial, rebuffing calls by the European Union and rights groups for their release.
The ruling came a day after MEPs gave a blunt rejection to Turkey's efforts to advance its EU membership application.
Turkey did not yet meet the political standards for EU membership, the European Parliament concluded, just months before the EU is due to decide whether to start accession talks.
MEPs voted by 211 to 84 to adopt a report on Ankara's progress towards accession which states starkly: "Turkey does not yet meet the Copenhagen political criteria" - a reference to EU standards on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
EU governments are to decide in December whether to open formal accession negotiations with Ankara on the basis of a recommendation by the European Commission.
Parliament will give its opinion on the Commission's report, but it is not legally binding. The EU legislature does have to ratify the outcome of the accession talks, which could take up to a decade.
The report, written by Dutch Christian Democrat Arie Oostlander, said the strongly pro-European government of Mr Tayyip Erdogan had made many courageous steps in the face of strong resistance towards political and economic reform, but itemised huge swathes of policy where more progress was needed.
"The European parliament notes that torture practices and mistreatment still continue \ regrets the fact that little progress has been made in bringing torturers to justice," it said.
Brussels has urged Turkey to free the four defendants, including Nobel Peace Prize nominee Leyla Zana.