Opposition launches march from Ankara to Istanbul after MP's arrest

Several thousand Turkish protesters marched in the capital Ankara to demonstrate against the 25-year prison sentence handed down to an opposition lawmaker Enis Berberoglu on spying charges.

The leader of the CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has called the decision lawless and politically motivated. On Thursday, he launched a 425 kilometer (265 mile) march from Ankara to the Istanbul jail where Berberoglu is being detained. Party officials said they expect the walk could take the 68-year-old politician at least 20 days.

"Our march will continue until there is justice in this country," Kilicdaroglu told reporters before heading for the park.

"We living a process that the real criminals are not put on trial but the innocent are tried and jailed," Reuters cited him as saying.

A court on Wednesday sentenced Enis Berberoglu, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on charges of giving an opposition newspaper a video purporting to show Turkey's intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria.