The BBC reports that, not content with prosecuting their own writers and publishers, Turkish prosecutors are now considering bringing a case against a Dutch MEP.

Speaking to journalists outside the trial in Istanbul of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is charged with insulting his nation’s identity, Joost Lagendijk allegedly said that Turkish troops were provoking clashes with Kurdish separatists.

Mr Lagendijk, a Dutch MEP who co-chairs the EU parliament committee on Turkey, was part of a delegation attending the Pamuk hearing.

The prosecution will investigate whether Mr Lagendijk infringed laws that punish “insults to Turkish national identity, the republic and state institutions and organs”.

The lawyers who filed the complaint want the MEP to be prosecuted under the same article used against Mr Pamuk, which makes insulting the military punishable by up to two years in prison.

In other Pamuk news, CBC reports that the writer will not be facing charges over an interview with German newspaper, Die Welt in which he said that Turkey’s military was sometimes a threat to democracy.

State news agency Anatolia said prosecutors looked into the case and decided not to pursue it. However, a group of nationalist lawyers who had asked the prosecutors to investigate Pamuk’s remarks plan to appeal that decision, Anatolia said.

The military has not commented on Pamuk’s comments. Many Turks see the army as the guarantor of the country’s secular order, though it has ousted several democratically elected governments in recent decades, most recently in 1997.

The trial over his comments about the massacre of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 is currently adjourned, but reopens on February 7th.

A hopefully positive note at the end of the CBC report suggests that these charges may be dropped.

This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Ministry has the final word on whether to allow the trial to go ahead.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to remove all barriers to free speech in Turkey. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the government may need to change Article 301, which has been used to prosecute scores of writers, journalists and academics.

The EU is threatening to suspend Turkey’s entry talks to its trading bloc, saying Turkey must improve civil liberties.

Hürriyet also notes that Turkish Justice Minister, Cemil Cicek, has called for “democratic patience” for debates over Articles 301 and 305 of the new Turkish Penal Code - the basis of the Pamuk trial and others.

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