Speaker Cicek: MP Alan should be freed

MP Engin Alan, who was elected to parliament in 2011 with Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), should be freed from prison, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek said on Wednesday.

Alan currently remains imprisoned while being tried over allegations of belonging to the Ergenekon conspiracy, allegedly a clandestine network of military officers and bureaucrats who stand accused of trying to topple the elected AK Party government.

Responding to questions from journalists at parliament in Ankara, Speaker Cicek said that of the two charged MPs, Sabahat Tuncel is currently free to carry out her legislative responsibilities, but Engin Alan remains in prison. Cicek stressed, "The case of prisoner MP Engin Alan is unfair, and this injustice should be removed."

Turkey's Court of Appeal upheld an eight-year, nine-month prison sentence against Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul Deputy Sebahat Tuncel for "being a member of the terrorist organisation PKK"; yet she remains free to attend Parliament.

"If Parliament could not find any constitutional solution [in Alan's case], the sentence should be postponed until the end of the term of Parliament," Cicek said.

Turkey's Parliament is currently in the 24th legislative session, which will continue untill general elections in June 2015.