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Amnesty International deplores right violations, hails Ergenekon prosecution

An Amnesty International report criticized the Constitutional Court's verdict on the headscarf issue.
In a damning report Amnesty International (AI) states that human rights conditions in Turkey have not improved recently; on the contrary they have deteriorated in many respects.




In its latest report, released yesterday, AI notes that the impunity of officials and severe human rights abuses regarding the Kurdish issue have persisted, while calling the Ergenekon investigation a “groundbreaking prosecution”. Despite allegations by certain circles that human rights abuses have occurred during the Ergenekon investigation, AI seems to have not taken them seriously.

The report, titled “Amnesty International Report 2009: State of the World's Human Rights,” which puts forward the organization's annual global assessment of human rights, covering human rights developments in 157 countries from January to December 2008, also criticizes the Constitutional Court's verdict on the headscarf issue.

While referring to the death in custody of Engin Çeber, the report underlines that former Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Şahin, for the first time in Turkish history, apologized to the family of the victim on behalf of the state, acknowledging that Çeber's death could have been the result of torture.

The following are highlights from the report:

Headscarves: In February Parliament passed constitutional amendments aimed at withdrawing the ban on women wearing the Islamic headscarf at universities, but the Constitutional Court overturned the amendments in June on the grounds that they violated the secular principles of the state. However, the judgment did not adequately demonstrate the need for this limitation of freedom of religion and conscience based on the human rights of others.

Ergenekon: In July an indictment was issued in a groundbreaking prosecution against an alleged ultranationalist network, Ergenekon, with links to state institutions. Eighty-six people, including senior retired army officers, were charged with various offenses relating to an alleged plot to violently overthrow the elected government through political assassinations and incitement of violence. The trial was continuing at the end of the year.

Freedom of expression: Human rights defenders, writers, journalists and others were unjustly prosecuted under unfair laws and subjected to arbitrary decisions by judges and prosecutors. Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code was amended by Parliament in April but remained an unfair limitation to freedom of expression. Investigations under Article 301 continued, authorized by the justice minister as required by the amendments. Other articles and laws continued to be used to limit freedom of expression. Courts also acted disproportionately when shutting down Web sites on the basis of posted items.

Torture: Reports of torture and other ill-treatment rose during 2008, especially outside official places of detention but also in police stations and prisons. People accused of ordinary as well as politically motivated offenses were vulnerable to ill-treatment. Counter-­charges were often brought against individuals who said they had been ill-treated by law enforcement officials. In October, Engin Çeber died in the hospital after being detained at the İstinye Police Station and Metris Prison in İstanbul. An autopsy found that death was due to cerebral bleeding as a result of blunt trauma injuries consistent with those caused by blows to the head. Nineteen law enforcement officials were suspended from duty and an indictment was drawn up against 60 state officials, some facing charges of torture. In the first such statement of its kind, the justice minister apologized to Çeber's family and acknowledged that the death may have been due to torture.

Impunity: Investigations into human rights violations by law enforcement officials remained flawed and prosecutions remained insufficient. Official human rights mechanisms were ineffective. The trial continued of people accused of involvement in the 2007 murder of Hrant Dink. In a separate prosecution, eight members of the gendarmerie were charged with negligence based on their alleged failure to act on information that could have prevented the murder. A report published in July by the parliamentary Human Rights Commission found that other state officials had been negligent in failing to prevent the murder. In November, the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of eight police officers for the death in custody of Alpaslan Yelden in İzmir in 1999. The court found there was insufficient evidence that the officers had participated in the torture.



28 May 2009, Thursday


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