AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

AAAS is concerned about new charges that have been brought against officials of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), one of whom is an engineer. The Ankara Public Chief Prosecution Office has brought charges against several executive board members of the HRFT including engineer Yavuz Onen and research director Fevzi Argun. They were the subject of a 9 January 1995 AAASHRAN alert when they were charged under Article 8 of the Anti-terror Law for the publication of the report File of Torture 1980-1994, noting cases of 420 people who are reported to have died in detention. The report was banned on 13 December by Diyarbakir State Security Court. They were acquitted of the charges on 11 January 1995.

Yavuz Onen and Fevzi Argun, along with the other executive board members of the HRFT, have now been charged under Article 159/3 of the Turkish Penal Code. They were charged for an article entitled "We Protect Human Rights with Imperfect Constitution and Laws," which appears in the book A Present to Emil Galip Sandalci published by the HRFT. Article 159/3 declares that "the ones who openly insult the laws of the Turkish Republic and the decisions of the Grand National Assembly are sentenced to 15 days to 6 months in prison." Their trial, which began on 18 January was observed by representatives from Amnesty International, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the Center for Victims of Torture, and foreign diplomats. It has been rescheduled for 4 March 1996.

The indictment states that "The laws of the Turkish Republic and the decisions of the Assembly were insulted in the article and that the HRFT administrators have [been] involved in the crime encompassing this article within the book they have published."

In court, Onen declared that the investigation was part of a campaign against human rights advocates and democratic powers and shows that obstruction against freedom of expression and organization are excessive, and that the amendment to Article 8 of the "Law to Fight Terrorism," (an action largely credited for Turkey's acceptance into the European Customs Union), did not provide a meaningful standard in it's human rights application.

Onen is President and General Secretary of the Union of Chambers of Engineers and Architects, President of the Union of Engineers of Balkan Countries, and President of the Human Rights Foundation, and Fevzi Argun is the Research Director of the Human Rights Foundation.

The prosecution of officials of the Human Rights Foundation for the publication of articles "insulting the laws of the republic of Turkey" indicate serious violations of international human rights standards, including basic protections provided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights. Among the relevant provisions are the following:

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted without opposition by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948):

• the right to freedom of thought and expression and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media (Article 19); and
• the freedom of peaceful assembly and association (Article 20).

Under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ratified by Turkey on 18 May 1954)

• everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Section 1, Article 9);
• everyone has the right to freedom of expression (Section 1, Article 10); and
• everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with other, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interest (Section 1, Article 11).

(Sources of information on this case include the Center for Victims of Torture, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, and the Chief Public Prosecutors Office of Ankara.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters requesting that with respect to Yavuz Onen, Fevzi Argun, and other officials of the Human Rights Foundation that:

• charges against them be dismissed immediately;
• they not be prosecuted for the exercise of their internationally protected rights of free expression and association;
• they are given a fair and public hearing; and the publication A Present to Emil Galip Sandalci be permitted to be freely distributed without interference from the government.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

President Suleyman Demirel
Office of the President
Cumhur Baskanligi
06100 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011-90-312-468-5026
Salutation: Your Excellency

Mr. Firuz Cilingiroglu
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011-90-312-417-3954
Salutation: Dear Minister

COPIES SENT TO:

Ambassador Nuzhet Kandemir
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
1714 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036


Ambassador Richard C. Barkley
Embassy of the United States of America
Ataturk Blvd.
PSC 93, Box 5000
Ankara, Turkey
APO AE 09823
Fax: 011-90-312-467-0019

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