03 Mar 2006 13:24:18 GMT
TUNCELI, Turkey, March 3 (Reuters) - A Turkish court heard charges on Friday that nine journalists and human rights workers, including a reporter for Reuters, had given help to Kurdish rebel fighters.

But Judge Murat Tekmen said there were faults in the case and set June 2 for the next hearing, saying those involved needed more time to prepare their testimony.

The reporter for Reuters, Turkish national Ferit Demir, who is based in the eastern town of Tunceli, and other defendants were detained last August while observing the handover of a soldier abducted by Kurdish rebels to a human rights group.

The men were then released pending investigations.

The gendarmerie, a paramilitary force overseeing security in rural areas, asked state prosecutors to open a case against the men. If found guilty, the nine face up to three years in jail.

Defence lawyers said on Friday the charges should be dropped because the gendarmerie had not provided evidence to back up their claim that the nine had spread propaganda on behalf of Kurdish rebels.

They also said the fact that the gendarmerie had brought the charges amounted to "military pressure" on the court which they said violated their clients' right to a fair trial. Journalists have often fallen foul of Turkish authorities over coverage of the Kurdish conflict in the impoverished southeast that has cost some 30,000 lives since 1984.

Demir also works for the private Turkish news agency, Dogan, and has reported for Reuters from Tunceli, one of the most volatile regions in eastern Turkey, for 12 years.

Turkey's government has eased curbs on the media and on Kurdish language and culture as it seeks European Union membership, but the security services and judiciary are seen as conservative forces often hostile to the human rights reforms.

In its indictment, the Tunceli prosecutor's office accused the nine journalists and human rights workers of using the kidnapped soldier, Coskun Kirandi, to promote the cause of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The nine deny the accusations.

PKK rebels held the soldier captive for nearly four weeks in a remote region of the southeast before releasing him.

Turkey blames the PKK, classified by the EU and the United States as a terrorist organisation, for the deaths and the economic damage inflicted on the southeast over two decades.

Violence eased after the 1999 capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, but has flared up again since the PKK ended a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.