Welfare Party seeks European support

A delegation of Turkey's outlawed pro-Islamist Welfare Party has met representatives of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, to seek support for its efforts to have the ban on the party overturned.

The deputy-leader of Welfare, Abdullah Guhl, confirmed the party would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, and said it would file a complaint against the Turkish authorities next week.

Mr Guhl said the Turkish Constitutional Court, which dissolved Welfare earlier this month, had violated a key article of the Turkish constitution which protects freedom of thought and expression as long as no act of terrorism or violence is committed.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service