A Turkish court ruled on Friday 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.
Brussels has urged EU candidate Turkey to free the four defendants, including onetime Nobel Peace Prize nominee Leyla Zana, saying their case reflected poorly on Ankara's efforts to improve its chequered human rights record.
The state security court fixed another hearing in the case for April 21. The jailed lawmakers' retrial was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights in 2001.
"Unfortunately there is no final verdict. I agree with the defence lawyers that this is not an example of a good retrial," said Joost Lagendijk, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, one of several EU lawmakers in Ankara for the court hearing.
Turkey is the only EU candidate not yet negotiating its entry because it has failed to meet the bloc's basic rights criteria. EU leaders will decide at a summit in December whether the country has done enough to open accession talks.
"Those who are opposed to Turkey's entry into the EU will use (the Zana case) against Turkey to say, 'You see, the reforms are not real,'" said Lagendijk outside court.