a Human Right lawyer sentenced to 30 months in prison

According to the information received, on November 14, 2006, Mr. Selahattin Demirtas was sentenced to 15 months in prison by the 4th Heavy Penal Court and a suspended sentence of 15 more months by the 5th Heavy Penal Court for propaganda for an illegal organisation, on the basis of an official complaint filed by the Diyarbakir Security Directorate. This complaint followed two public statements made by Mr. Demirtas in June and July 2005, during which he took position in favour of a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Kurdish issue through discussions with Abdullah Ocalan, who, he stated, should be considered as indispensable as he is regarded as a leader by the Kurds.

The Diyarbakir Chief Public Prosecution Office decided to file two separate claims against Mr. Demirtas at the 4th and 5th Heavy Penal Courts (previously known as State Security Courts), for violation of Article 220/8 of the Turkish Penal Code which provides that “those who do propaganda for an illegal organisation or for its aims in published writings or through media channels are sentenced to 18 months to 4.5 years imprisonment with hard labour”.

Mr. Demirtas appealed against both sentences, and the Supreme Court should make a decision within six months.

Our organisations recall that Mr. Demirtas has been subjected to numerous legal proceedings due to his statements or activities in favour of human rights, peace and democracy. Indeed, more than 80 investigations were launched against him, and among them, 14 cases were brought to court in the last few years[1].

Our organisations express their deepest concern about this sentence which illustrates ongoing repression of freedom of expression in Turkey, in particular when it comes to statements regarding a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. This decision blatantly violates Turkey's commitments regarding freedom of expression, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (article 19.1 and 19.2), as well article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and article 9.1 of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference of the Human Dimension of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which all provide the right for everyone to “freedom of expression” including the freedom to receive and impart information and ideas, without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

FIDH and OMCT remind the Turkish authorities that they have to conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular article 6c), which provides that everyone has the right “to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters”.

Our organisations urge the Turkish authorities to ensure Mr. Demirtas a fair and impartial trial in appeal and to guarantee freedom of expression in any circumstances, in accordance with the above-mentioned regional and international human rights instruments.

For more information, please contact
FIDH: +00 33 1 43 55 25 18
OMCT: + 00 41 22 809 49 39

[1] 10 of these 14 cases ended in acquittal, 2 of them resulted in conviction and the other two are still in process.