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Turkey: Unfair trials - failed justice
under new courts 6.9.2006
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: EUR 44/014/2006 (Public), News Service No:
222 , 6 September 2006
Turkey: Unfair trials - failed justice under new
courts
Amnesty International has revealed today that people
charged under anti-terrorism legislation in Turkey
continue to face unending trials with some people
still detained after more than a decade.
In its report, Turkey: Justice delayed and denied,
the organization points out that such trials often
rely on past evidence obtained through torture.
"Unfair trials continue to blight Turkey's human
rights record. A look at the prolonged and flawed
trials of those charged under anti-terrorism
legislation provides a striking indication of the
extent of the failure of justice in Turkey today,"
said Nicola Duckworth, Director of the Europe and
Central Asia Programme at Amnesty International.
"The Turkish government professes its commitment to
eradicating torture, yet it is shocking to discover
that evidence extracted through such methods
continues to be admitted in the special Heavy Penal
Courts and judges are still refusing to throw it
out."
Those charged under anti-terrorism legislation are
brought to trial before special Heavy Penal Courts,
which replaced the State Security Courts in June
2004. However, the same pattern of unfair trial
procedures continues:
People charged as far back as 1993 are still behind
bars having been denied an effective defence or
genuine retrial, even where the European Court of
Human Rights has ruled on their case and found
Turkey in violation of its fair trial obligations;
Judges and prosecutors are often the same people who
presided over the same cases in the days of the
State Security Courts, thus recreating the old
pattern of failed justice under the new system;
The right to effective defence is violated by judges
who routinely and arbitrarily fail to call witnesses
to be brought to testify and be cross-examined by
defence lawyers.
Even after the Turkish authorities have provided the
possibility for people to be retried following
European Court judgments finding Turkey in violation
of fair trial principles, to date such retrials have
not been a fresh, thorough and impartial
re-examination of the evidence.
"By law, some people in whose favour the European
Court of Human Rights has ruled, have the right to
retrial. However to date, if such a retrial is
opened, it is conducted in a way worthy of Kafka's
attention - the same judges and prosecutors wipe off
the dust on the same files and predictably reach the
same decision that was already criticized by the
Court in the first place. Old and compromised
evidence, most often obtained through torture, is
not overturned," Nicola Duckworth said.
Moreover, in providing the right to retrial
following European Court rulings finding Turkey in
violation of fair trial rights, the government has
introduced a get-out clause which blocks the
possible retrial of anyone with cases pending at the
Court on 4 February 2003. The motivation for this
was to find a way to avoid the retrial of Abdullah
Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The
measure thus also has a discriminatory effect on all
the other cases in the European Court which, along
with Abdullah Öcalan's, were pending on the same
date.
"The Turkish authorities must undertake as an urgent
priority a systematic review of all pending criminal
proceedings to determine all those cases where there
are allegations that during interrogation statements
by suspects/defendants or witnesses were illegally
extracted through torture or other ill-treatment.
They must take steps to drop all cases where there
is well-founded suspicion that the main evidence
against the defendant is based on 'confessions'
allegedly extracted by force," Nicola Duckworth
said.
Amnesty International calls on the Turkish
authorities to comply with international standards
for fair trials and undertake a full investigation
of all torture allegations; end all use of torture
evidence in court; ensure the right to an effective
defence; end prolonged pre-trial detention and
protracted criminal proceedings.
For more information see: Turkey: Justice delayed
and denied: The persistence of protracted and unfair
trials for those charged under anti-terrorism
legislation, AI Index: EUR 44/013/2006, http://
web.amnesty.org/library/index/engeur440132006.
Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty
International's press office in London, UK, on +44
20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X
0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org
Source: Amnesty International USA
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rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
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which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey
The Kurdish flag flown in Iraqi Kurdistan but
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