Fifty-eight Greenpeace activists are on trial for violating the Law on Public Meetings and Demonstrations No. 2911 because they joined an anti-nuclear demonstration in front of Parliament.

The trial was postponed to Jan. 12 of next year.

Co-spokesperson Ümit Şahin from Turkey's Green Party said that the people of Mersin and Sinop do not want nuclear energy in their region.

"The people of Turkey need to be informed on the dangers of nuclear power stations. The 170,000 signatures that we tried to take to Parliament show just that," he said in reference to the Greenpeace activists who collected approximately 170,000 signatures to show people's opposition to the establishment of nuclear power plants.

Korol Diker, in charge of the Greenpeace Mediterranean Climate and Energy Project, said they are being prosecuted for using their freedom of thought and expression, which are supposed to be guaranteed according to international agreements that Turkey signed.

"We cannot talk about individual freedoms and democracy in a country where peaceful acts of protest are being punished," Diker said.
CIHAN