Blind Turk pensioner man sentenced to library course

ISTANBUL, Dec 2 (Reuters) A blind Turkish pensioner has been sentenced to a 26-day reading and writing course at his local public library after he failed to vote on time in an election for his village cooperative, his son said.

A prosecutor in the province of Kutahya in northwest Turkey sentenced Ismail Canseven, 73, to the education course after he did not show up for the election of the cooperative's board of directors in May, Isa Canseven told Reuters.

''What am I going to do in a library? I can't see out of either of my eyes, and I can't read or write anyway,'' Yyesterday's edition of the Hurriyet newspaper quoted Ismail as saying.

Isa Canseven, 42, said he would appeal against the sentence served on his father. ''My father can only find the bathroom by holding on to a piece of string we've tied to the (bathroom) wall,'' he said.

In Turkey, people are obliged by law to vote in elections.

REUTERS SB ND0930