Turkey: Human Rights NGO Chairman sentenced to jail for his opinions

                                            TUR 003 / 9807 / OBS 056
                                                     July 30th, 1998

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, 
a joint programme of the FIDH and OMCT, requests your urgent 
intervention regarding the following situation in Turkey.

Brief description of the situation :

The Security Court of Ankara has just condemned Mr. Akin 
Birdal, Chairman of the Human Rights Association in Turkey 
(IHD - member organisation of the FIDH and OMCT) and Vice-
Chairman of the FIDH, to one year's imprisonment and to pay a 
fine of 420'000 Turkish liras.

This pronounced sentence, based on article 312 of the Turkish 
penal code, that represses incitement to hatred and discrimination 
on the basis of race, religion or origin, follows declarations made 
by the President of the IHD on September 1st, 1996, during the 
World Day for Peace.

Akin Birdal decided to appeal this decision as soon as he became 
aware of his sentence.

The Observatory condemns the decision taken by the Security 
Court which illustrates once more the persistence of the Turkish 
justice to use the legislative apparatus of the Turkish Republic to 
condemn every individual to heavy terms of imprisonment, whose 
opinions, speeches or writings bother or displease.

It notes that a draft bill, which aims to liberalise the legislation on 
crimes of opinion and to grant amnesty to prisoners of opinion 
(journalists, writers, human rights activists...), must be submitted 
to the vote of the Turkish parliament, next October.

It is therefore more than ever befitting to severely condemn 
decisions such as the one the Security Court  of Ankara has just 
adopted and encourage all measures in favour of the liberalisation 
of the regime.

The Observatory urges you to write to the Turkish authorities in 
order to ask them to implement the international conventions 
ratified by Turkey, particularly the European Convention of 
Human Rights that guarantees the freedom of expression.

Addresses  :

H.E. Yilmaz,  Prime Minister, Basbakanlik, 06 573 Ankara, 
Turkey. Fax.: 90 312 417 04 76

Mr. Olatan Sungurlu, Minister of Justice, Ankara, Turkey. Fax.: 
90 312 417 39 17

Mr. Ecevit, parlementaire du DSP Fax 90 312 419 16 64


Geneva - Paris, July 30 1998

The Human Rights Action Network, a part of Derechos Human Rights, distributes appeals on behalf of victims of human rights violations. You are invited to join the network. Please check the date of the present action and do not write if it's over a month old.