Turkish rights activist barred from travelling abroad

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

   ANKARA, Nov 9 (AFP) - A court has banned Turkish human rights  
activist Akin Birdal from travelling abroad, his lawyer said here 
Monday. 
   Birdal, chairman of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD),  
was stopped by airport authorities as he tried to board a plane for 
Norway on Monday, lawyer Yusuf Alatas said. 
   "We learnt of this ban when Mr Birdal was prevented from  
travelling to Norway," Alatas said, adding that the ban was imposed 
on October 28. 
   Turkey's Court of Appeal upheld a one-year prison sentence for  
Birdal on October 27. He was convicted of "incitement to religious 
hatred" last year for a speech made at a leftist party congress in 
1996. 
   He has the right to a four-month stay of sentence before going  
to jail. 
   The 50-year-old campaigner is still recovering from injuries  
sustained when two would-be assassins entered his office in Ankara 
in May and fired 13 bullets at him. 
   The attack came after Birdal was accused of being a sympathiser  
of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 
   Birdal has already served a one-year jail term on charges of  
supporting the PKK, an accusation he denies. 
  	   	

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