Turkey's Gul pardons ailing former Prime Minister Erbakan

20/08/2008

ANKARA, Turkey -- President Abdullah Gul on Tuesday (August 19th) pardoned former Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who was serving a sentence of two and a half years for financial abuse. Gul based his decision on health issues confronting the 81-year-old Erbakan, who had been serving his sentence under house arrest rather than in prison. He was convicted of misusing funds belonging to his Welfare Party, which courts later abolished. Late last month, former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas sought the pardon during a meeting in Nicosia with Mustafa Isen, the chief secretary of the Turkish presidency. (Zaman, Hurriyet, Vatan, Cumhurriyet, Radikal, Sabah - 20/08/08; AFP, DPA, AP - 19/08/08)