In a dramatic twist, it was announced today that Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block candidate Hatip Dicle could be taken out of the election run. According to Dicle's lawyers the former DEP MP had been sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison for "PKK propaganda" following a statement he gave on 23 October 2007 to Anka agency.

Dicle's sentence was enacted despite the lawyers' objection. According to the law this imprisonment sentence to more than a year and his conviction for propaganda could mean that he will not be able to get into the parliament even if he was elected. The situation would however be different if the Supreme Court trated his file after the elections.

Speaking to ANF Dicle's lawyer Fethi Gümüþ said that the sentence doesn't create an obstacle before the election of Dicle.

Hatip Dicle was born in 1955. His application to the European Court of Human Rights had been lodged in his own name and on behalf of the Democracy Party (Demokrasi Partisi - DEP), of which he was the president until its dissolution by the Constitutional Court in 1994.

DEP was founded on 7 May 1993. On 2 November 1993 the Principal Public Prosecutor brought an action for the dissolution of the DEP on the ground that it had infringed constitutional principles and the Law on Political Parties in a written declaration that had been made by its central committee and speeches by its former president at two meetings in Germany and Iraq.