Judge calls halt to trial of Turkish writer

The trial of the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk was suspended minutes after it began yesterday when the judge said the prosecution could not proceed until it had been approved by the Ministry of Justice.

Judge Metin Aydin said the trial would restart on 7 February 2006, to give him enough time to decide whether the accusations levelled at the acclaimed author were in line with appropriate judicial procedures.

Mr Pamuk's defence lawyer, Haluk Inanici, told the judge: "We are asking the court to immediately start the interrogation of Mr Pamuk and we demand that he be acquitted."

The trial has raised concerns in Brussels that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan's government might not introduce the reforms needed to bring Turkey, which wants to join the EU, in line with European freedom of speech.

When a delegation from the European Parliament and Britain's former minister for Europe, Denis MacShane, entered court, there was a scuffle with prosecution lawyers. Mr MacShane said he had been punched by a nationalist.

Mr Pamuk faces up to three years in jail for insulting national identity. He told a newspaper: "Thirty-thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it."