Turkse man veroordeeld tot 22 jaar gevangenis voor besmeuren beeld Atatürk (en)

Just days before a key EU report on Turkey's human rights record, an Ankara court has sentenced a Turkish man to 22 and a half years in prison for smearing oil paint on busts of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

According to press reports, 30 year old Murat Vural this year on five occasions tipped paint on busts of Turkey's founding father in an Ankara suburb.

Mr Vural was subsequently arrested and charged under a Turkish constitutional law protecting the late Mr Ataturk from insults and desecration.

The Ankara court sentenced Mr Vural to four and a half years for each of the five incidents, amounting to a total of 22 and a half years.

The Turkish TV station NTV reports that Mr Vural said in his defence that lack of love and unemployment prompted his actions.

In EU member states themselves, limited jail sentences exist for insults against, for example, a head of state.

In the Netherlands, citizens "insulting" the queen risk a jail penalty of a maximum of five years.

The news of the Vural ruling comes just as the European Commission is preparing a crucial progress report that will focus on the Turkish human rights situation.

The report, due on 9 November, is set to highlight failures by Turkish courts to implement a new penal code that Ankara was forced to adopt as part of its bid to become an EU member.

Implementation failures were recently highlighted following charges by an Istanbul prosecutor against the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who raised the issue of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

The charges were made in spite of the adoption of the fresh penal code.