Turkish court sentences general for insulting Erdogan

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ISTANBUL | Tue Oct 25, 2011 6:17pm EDT

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A retired general was given a suspended sentence of almost a year in jail on Tuesday for insulting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, state run Anatolian news agency reported.

The case against General Saldiray Berk, who is also a suspect in an alleged coup plot, was filed by the prime minister.

Erdogan's lawyer petitioned the Ankara prosecutor's office last year, citing a speech Berk gave in 2008 during a visit to an village in eastern Turkey.

Berk was accused of asking his audience: "Do you know the prime minister has sold the country?"

Finding Berk guilty of the charge, the court, in the eastern province of Erzincan, suspended the 11 month and 20 day sentence for five years.

Berk, a former commander of the third army, was forced to retire in August due to the conspiracy case against him. He could be jailed for more than 12 years, if he is found guilty of being part of a plot to oust Erdogan from power.

The case against him formed part of an investigation into an alleged anti-government network called Ergenekon.

The military has traditionally regarded itself as the guardian of the secular state envisaged by the republic's revered founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The country's generals have clashed several times with Erdogan since his religiously conservative AK Party first came to power in Muslim Turkey a decade ago.

But, by using legislation meant to make Turkey's democracy fit for membership of the European Union, Erdogan has succeeded in curbing the generals' power, lessening chances for a repeat of the coups that have punctuated the country's history since 1960.

Erdogan filed and won similar cases in the past, including one against a cartoonist who depicted him as a cat. The cartoonist was fined 5,000 lira ($2,793).

(Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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Bahrain sentences protest medics

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29 September 2011 Last updated at 10:28 GMT The medics and other suspects have been tried by a special security court A court in Bahrain has jailed 20 medics who treated protesters to up to 15 years, after convicting them of incitement to overthrow the regime.

In a separate case, the special security court sentenced a protester to death for killing a policeman.

The medics had been released on bail after many staged a hunger strike.

They treated people injured when a protest movement calling for more rights for the country's Shia majority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom was crushed.

Human rights activists say the sentences against the medics come as a surprise.

They had been cautiously hopeful that the medics' release on bail was a sign that the government was softening its approach.

The Bahraini doctors and nurses were sentenced to between five and 15 years in prison on charges that include possessing unlicensed arms, seizing medical equipment, and provoking sectarian hatred.

All worked in the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, which security forces entered on 16 March after forcefully clearing the nearby Pearl Roundabout of demonstrators.

Human rights activists say they were only doing their duty.

'Tortured'

The medics were also accused of refusing to treat injured security officials.

Relatives of some of the medics said in June that they were tortured into making false confessions.

A wave of mostly peaceful protests swept the country in February and March, but they were put down by force by the government, which called in troops from neighbouring Gulf states.

However, skirmishes are reported regularly as protesters try to keep their movement alive.

Bahrain's official news agency, BNA, said the protester sentenced to death, Ali Yusof al-Taweel, had killed a policeman in the Shia area of Sitra, south of Manama.

Earlier, the security court had sentenced two other protesters to death for killing a police officer.

On Wednesday, the court upheld life sentences for eight Shia activists convicted over their alleged role in protests.

It also upheld sentences of up to 15 years on 13 other activists.

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Life sentences urged in Knox case

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24 September 2011 Last updated at 16:56 GMT The outcome of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's appeal is due by early October Prosecutors have called for an appeals court to extend the sentences given to two convicted murderers of British student Meredith Kercher to life terms.

American Amanda Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty in 2009 of murder in Italy and jailed for 26 years and 25 years respectively.

The pair, who deny any wrongdoing, are appealing against their convictions.

In summing up, prosecutors said evidence pointed to the pair's guilt and defended the original DNA evidence.

Independent experts had questioned the reliability of evidence - used in the original trial - from a knife and Miss Kercher's bra clasp.

Manuela Comodi, one of the prosecutors making closing statements, showed the jury how she believed the bra had been cut from Miss Kercher. She also showed jurors photographs from the scene.

The prosecution told the court the independent experts, appointed by a judge, did not have sufficient qualifications to be described as experts.

'Bungled sex game'

They also said the DNA was only one part of the original case against Knox and Sollecito.

There was also considerable circumstantial evidence which put the defendants in the flat on the night of Miss Kercher's death, they said.

Prosecutors told the court that their evidence showed the pair should not be acquitted but given life sentences - something which they had argued during the original trial.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford, who is in Perugia, said the prosecution's demand was something Knox and Sollecito's teams would have been expecting.

Closing arguments from the Kercher family's lawyer and the defence are due to be heard next week.

Knox, 24, and her former boyfriend Sollecito, 26, were convicted of the 2007 murder of Miss Kercher in her bedroom after a bungled sex game. Miss Kercher's throat had been cut.

Year-long appeal

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, south London, had been sharing a flat with Knox in Perugia while on an exchange year abroad from the University of Leeds.

Knox and Sollecito have spent almost a year appealing against their convictions.

Earlier in the appeal, independent experts suggested that the original DNA evidence fell short of international standards, with police failing to wear the correct protective equipment and wrapping evidence in plastic bags instead of paper.

They also said the genetic profile on the knife's blade, which was attributed to Miss Kercher, could not be attributed with certainty.

The original testing did not follow recommendations of the international scientific community for dealing with DNA testing, they added.

The review did support original tests which found the genetic profile on the knife's plastic handle could be attributed to Knox, they said.

A third person, 21-year-old Rudy Guede, was also convicted of Miss Kercher's murder in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year term.

The outcome of the appeal is expected by early October.

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