The court in the town of Cizre, Sirnak province, charged the women with violating the law on public demonstrations in Monday's protest, tasking a local prosecutor with drawing up an indictment against them.

Thirty-one of the protestors were remanded in custody pending trial while the rest were released, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added.

The women -- among them members of the country's main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party -- were detained after they blocked Cizre's main street to traffic and refused police orders to disperse.

The group also shouted slogans in favour of Ocalan, drawing attention to recent claims by his lawyers that he is being poisoned while serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison island.

Ocalan, considered by many as public enemy number one, is the head of the oulawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has led a bloody campaign since 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives so far.