DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Turkey's mainly-Kurdish
southeast plan to charge 13 juveniles including at least one nine-year-old with abetting
separatist Kurdish rebels, a lawyer said on Monday.

The case could be a fresh test for EU-candidate Turkey's promises to improve its shaky
human rights record as part of the country's efforts to meet membership criteria.

Last week a State Security Court based in the regional capital Diyarbakir acquitted 15 of the
28 juveniles aged between nine and 17 who were arrested two weeks ago after allegedly
shouting slogans in favour of Kurdish rebels.

The court ruled there was insufficient evidence to take those cases further.

However prosecutors were preparing an indictment accusing the rest with "aiding and
abetting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)," said Mahmut Vefa, a lawyer for the
youths. They could face up to seven and half years in jail.

"Prosecution of these children is against the European Convention for Children's Rights. We
will apply all legal means and we will probably appeal to the European Court of Human
Rights if necessary," Vefa told Reuters.

Seven of the 13 youths expected to be charged were released from prison pending the start of
the prosecution, he said. Officials of the Diyarbakir court declined to comment. The court is
expected to set a date this week for the first hearing.

The juveniles were taken into custody by the local police on January 9 after they allegedly
shouted slogans in support of the PKK around a bonfire they lit in the town of Viransehir.

The PKK first took up arms for Kurdish home rule in 1984 but has pulled out of Turkish
soil and reduced its demands to seeking Kurdish cultural rights in line with the orders of its
condemned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Families of the youths have denied the accusations and complained their children were
tortured under detention.

"The IHD (The Human Rights Association) strongly protests the detention of and
questioning of the children by the security forces and their subjection to inhuman treatment
and violence," the IHD Diyarbakir office said in a statement faxed to Reuters.

The case would be the second major case of its kind after 15 youngsters were prosecuted and
acquitted in the western town of Manisa for alleged membership of an armed leftist group.

Their trial known as the "Manisa case" brought Turkey's poor human rights performance
under closer western scrutiny. Ten policemen were given prison terms for torturing them in
custody.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com