Turk court asks Kurd party to expel four members

ANKARA, May 17 (Reuters) A top Turkish prosecutor has asked a pro-Kurdish party to expel four members, including former deputy Leyla Zana, because legal restrictions on them are still valid, the Court of Appeals said today.

Earlier CNN Turk television reported the former members, including Selim Sadak, Mehmet Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan, cannot be candidates in a July 22 national election.

''I request removal of those named in the list from the party membership and their duties in the party's organs in line with the political parties' law,'' the Court of Appeals chief prosecutor Nuri Ok said in a statement for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).

A DTP official told Reuters the party's ruling organs would meet and decide on the prosecutor's request.

''But it is not the Court of Appeals but the High Election Board that can decide whether someone can run for elections,'' the official, who declined to be named, said.

The DTP, to which Zana and other members of the banned DEP now belong, had said it would field candidates as independents in the poll.

The party failed to exceed a 10 per cent national threshold in previous elections and has no deputies in parliament.

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