ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- An Islamic leader was taken to prison Tuesday where he will serve a two-year sentence for claiming that an earthquake was God's revenge against Turkey for its secularist policies.
Mehmet Kutlular, leader of the Nur Cemaati sect, was convicted of inciting religious hatred for a booklet distributed by his group in October 1999.
The booklet said the quake that struck Turkey's northwest in August that year, killing more than 17,000 people, was divine retribution for laws that ban Islamic-style head scarves in schools and public buildings.
A court last year sentenced Kutlular to two years in prison, but allowed him to remain free pending an appeal that was rejected by a court earlier this year.
On Tuesday, an administrative court ordered police to take him to Istanbul's Metris prison to begin serving his two-year sentence. He will be held for a minimum of nine months and 23 days.
Secularism is rigorously enforced in Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim state.
AP-CS-05-22-01 1202EDT