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Czech court convicts a Kurd of German
nationality of crimes not committed
3.5.2007
By Sissy Danninger
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After an
almost 13-year-ordeal he will fight for his name to
be cleared
May 3, 2007
Prague, Czech Rep. ,--- The verdict and
sentence came as a shock to the accused, his family
and his friends - among them the Czech Helsinki
Committee, the Charter 77 Foundation, Action
Courage, Amnesty International, the Czech PEN Club
and, last but not least, former President Vaclav
Havel.
On March 29th, 2007 the Prague 4 regional court
convicted Dr. Yekta Uzunoglu (54), Turkish Kurd by
origin, Czech resident since the 1970ies and German
national since the mid-1990ies
to two years in
prison suspended for five years. He was
pronounced guilty of crimes, which he never
committed - as even the alleged victim now publicly
asserted in court. |
Kurdish physician and businessman Dr Yekta Uzunoglu |
To the physician, human rights activist and author
as well as to his supporters the obvious miscarriage
of justice in the young Czech Republic is
intentional and not restricted to the single “Uzunoglu-case”.
To them it is symptomatic for a legacy of the old
communist systems of the police and the judiciary,
which have not been overcome still.
Uzunoglu is determined to continue his legal fight
not only to clear his name and have his
guiltlessness established but also to contribute to
the re-establishment of public trust into the
executive system and justice of his second home
country. If necessary he will take his case even to
the European Court of Justice, he affirms.
His Kafkaesque ordeal started in 1994 in the field
of competition for Czech foreign investments abroad.
Active as a businessman in those days he was asked
by the Czech Skoda Company to help in negotiations
for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant
in Turkey. He was successful, yet, shortly before
the breakthrough a threat came from a member of the
competing Skoda-Export Company.
Uzunoglu disregarded it and continued until he was
arrested on September 13th, 1994 and charged with no
less than “torture, limitation of personal freedom,
conspiracy to murder, robbery, fraud and possessing
arms without a licence”, as Amnesty International (ai)
reports in a “Public Statement” issued in London on
March 28th, 2007, just the day before the verdict.
He had to remain in custody for more than two and a
half years until March 12th, 1997. “Details of any
investigations” into Uzunoglu’s own allegations of
torture and ill-treatment during that period are
also still being asked for by ai.
While he was remanded in custody still the former
volunteer with ai-Germany and “Médecins sans
Frontières” was granted German citizenship. The
corresponding documents were delivered to him in his
Czech prison. By and by most of the charges against
him were dropped for lack of evidence until shortly
after his release. However those for torture and
limitation of personal freedom remained in force.
Because Uzunoglu wanted to become acquitted of those
as well he did not leave the Czech Republic for
Germany but stayed.
His resolve not to leave the Czech Republic was not
even shaken by an attempt to transfer him and the
proceedings to Turkey in January 2003 via the Czech
Ministry of Justice - to the very country he had
fled because of prosecution for his humanitarian
work for Kurds in the early 1970ies. The manoeuvre
failed: The Turkish authorities just seized
Uzunoglu’s passport and did not let him enter the
country, an open letter, titled “We accuse” and
issued in March 2006 by his friends, recounts. 240
persons have signed it up to now,
among them
Vaclav Havel, Jelena Bonner, Karel
Schwarzenberg and many other concerned Czech
citizens.
In Prague the main court hearing on Uzunoglu’s
appeal finally began on June 25th, 2004 as ai
reports. The procedures were considerably delayed
again, because the alleged torture victim - Göksel
Otan, a Turk who had been working with the secret
police in the communist era according to Czech media
reports - did not appear in court repeatedly.
Anyway, at the beginning of October 2006 he
retracted his original testimony saying Uzunoglu did
not abduct or torture him and had not even been
present during the act of torture.
The final court hearings started on March 27th,
2007. Two days later Judge Viteslav Rasik found
Yekta Uzunoglu guilty.
***
The Czech friends and supporters of Dr.Yekta
Uzunoglu feel deeply discouraged, because all their
efforts in this fight for justice, hunger strikes
included, have been in vain. Therefore they ask for
help and support for their cause on an international
basis now. Assistance is possible by publishing this
information, forwarding it to friends, trying to
contact the Czech elites in politics and the
judiciary through official or informal channels …
Prague, Vienna, in May 2007, Sissy Danninger,
Freelance, Vienna
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