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TURKEY: The Trial of Human Rights Lawyer Muharrem Erbey
RAPID ACTION NETWORK
1 February 2011
RAN 02/10 Update # 1
On 24 December 2009, human rights lawyer, writer and PEN Turkey member Muharrem Erbey was arrested in Diyabakir, south eastern Turkey. He has been detained ever since, and is standing trial alongside over 150 other defendants, charged with having links to an organization allegedly linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Muharrem Erbey is a highly-regarded human rights lawyer, and Vice President of the Human Rights Association (IHD), who has conducted research into disappearances and extra-judicial killings in and around the Diyabakir region. PEN International shares the concerns of other human rights observers that Muharrem Erbey's arrest appears to be linked to his human rights advocacy.
Former International Secretary, now board member of PEN International, Eugene Schoulgin attended the trial in January 2011. He wrote a report of the experience, which we include below. It is not for publication at the moment.
For more information about Muharrem Erbey, please see: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.cfm?objectid=1E51D824-3048-676E-26E0A97955CF9BF0
Report From the Trial of Muharrem Erbey, Diyarbakir 13-14.01.2011
On the 13th and 14th of January, I was present at the trial of over 150 defendants together. PEN was present at the trial to support the writer Muharrem Erbey, one of the accused.
Let it be clear, that although I find it appropriate to monitor this case, I find it difficult to see that it has much to do with Erbey’s writing. This is a clear cut political trial, and I have to add, I find it the most scandalous and outrageous trial I have witnessed during my 15 years of observing in Turkey.
This hearing was the third since the trial opened, and it will go on until the 11th of February, which indicates that this report only covers the opening phases. Since it is so closely connected to the political games played day by day in this country, it is impossible to foresee what will happen.
In the middle of an enormous courtroom, more than 150 accused were seated in seven rows behind a low wooden fence surrounded by the usual chain of gendarmes. On both sides of the room 350 defence lawyers from all over the country had come to represent the defendants, showing their sympathy and dismay, and at the back of the room the international observers (approximately 30) - members of Kurdish and Turkish political parties and NGO circles in Turkey - plus family and friends, were watching the proceedings.
Before the procedures started, the defendants were waving and shouting to their friends and acquaintances, with the audience shouting and waving back, while the gendarmes only half-heartedly tried to hinder the communication.
The judge opened the hearing by reading the names of the accused. One by one they answered ’Li vir im’ which means ’I am here’ in Kurdish. After that, the 350 defence lawyers presented themselves and announced who they were there to defend. The huge majority of them declared that they were defending all the accused. This procedure lasted approximately 45 minutes.
Before the judge had time to open for the investigations, the leading defence lawyer, Güven Atay took the floor and protested. He told the court that the defendants had been held in a cellar under the courtroom for several hours (the trial should have started at 09:00 am, but was opened only 11:30) with no heating, no electricity, no food and no water (it was +3 degrees outside). That many of them were in bad health in the first place due to miserable conditions in the prison, and that this treatment was a contravention to their human rights according to international law practice. The judge declared that the court would address the chief prosecutor’s office in Ankara and ask for advice(!) When the lawyers protested loudly, it was anounced that the accused had permission to stay in the court room during the lunch break.
Then the judge called on the first defendant to speak up for himself. The man stood up and started to talk in Kurdish. After one sentence his microphone was cut off and the judge said: ’In a Turkish court only Turkish is allowed; this man seems to address us in a language which might be Kurdish.’ Then she asked the next man to start his defence – and the same procedure followed. After four or five had been cut off, one of the defence lawyers took the floor and stated that according to the opinion of the defence, there was no value in going on like this since it was obvious to all that this farce would continue until all the accused had been hindered from speaking, and that according to the Copenhagen Criteria, an accused had the right to defend her- or himself in the language the defendant feels most comfortable with.
The remark was overruled, and this game went on until lunch.
After lunch the defence lawyers started their procedure. They stated, that since the accused were not allowed to defend themselves, the idea about a fair trial was already damaged. In addition to this, the defence had still not, after all this time, been allowed to see the written indictments, and up to this moment the court had not been able to come up with one single proof of any criminal acts by any of the defendants. All the accusations were built on rumours and conjectures: some mobile phone recordings and remarks. No links to any outlawed organisation were proved. All these defendants were peaceful members of the society, occupied in different humanistic organisations or they were politicians chosen by the people to represent them. Beside that, the decision to keep 106 of them in custody for more than one year was already a punishment brought upon them without any reason. Since all the accused were members of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), this was a trial against a political party in Turkey which was not closed down.
One after the other of the defence lawyers took the floor, but they did not present any defence, they made speeches, each between 30 and 45 minutes.
This went on for the rest of the 13th and the entire day of the 14th.
On the 14th, two more men were added to the rank of defendants, accused of separatist propaganda.
The defence lawyers talked about the history of Turkish law practice and pointed out that the judicial system in Turkey had hindered the country from developing a normal routine of discussion and debate completely normal in a true democracy, and that the courts, from Ottoman times and all through the history of the republic, had cultivated the habit of changing all normal debates into a question of propaganda and slogans.
Significantly, that the majority of the accusations in this trial refer to Article 141. The only problem with 141 is that it was abandoned from the Turkish criminal code in 1990!
One of the lawyers, Sedat Yurtdas, also a member of The Republican People's Party (CHP), the major opposition party to AKP, told the court that some time ago he had been given a document, taken from the military command in the South East region, where, to his dismay, he was able to read what he until then had refused to believe was possible - namely the strategy of how to make all efforts to solve the problems in the region in a peaceful way impossible.
Another lawyer asked how it was possible that the Kurdish State TV channel was preparing a program about this trial. Already during the preliminary inquiries the defence lawyers had been insulted by the prosecutors. Their documents had been thrown in their faces, and the accused were not permitted to deliver their power of attorney to the court.
This went on and on: each detail worse than the previous. None of the present observers were allowed to speak to the defendants, but at least Muharrem Erbey was told that PEN was present: we were able to wave to each other.
On the 13th, there were a huge demonstration outside the court. Thousands of demonstrators yelled slogans. The BDP bus came and the leaders spoke to the public, Kurdish music was played, pictures of Abdullah Öcalan rose over the masses. Then provocateurs and youngsters started to throw fireworks at the police, the pepper gas and water cannons started to sweep over the demonstrators. The youngsters threw stones and the whole situation got out of hand for a while. There were some minor explosions, some teenagers were arrested, then it calmed down and the BDP bus came back. The leaders declared that now they wanted to go on with the meeting, that the violence had not been instigated by them, etc.
Of course it was in the interest of some to describe Diyarbakir as a city under heavy pressure and the situation to be inflammatory. As far as I experienced it, walking the streets and being a close witness to the fighting, this was far from the truth. As a whole the city remained calm.
I was able to discuss the situation with a number of leading personalities in Diyarbakir, like the mayor Osman Baydemir and Abdullah Demirbaş, both among the accused, but not imprisoned; with the well known writer and Turkish PEN member Şeyhmus Diken and with my old friend the parliamentarian Akın Birdal among others. I also discussed the trial with members of the organisation Lawyers Without Borders, and representatives from the European Parliament.
On the 18th the hearings opened again, and now I have been told that the defendants all of a sudden have been allowed to defend themselves in Kurdish, and their defence lawyers are translating what they are saying.
Finally a personal comment: The political situation in Turkey is as usual extremely confusing, but there are some clear signs that the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on one side is more interested in catching votes among the nationalists now before the elections in June. On the other hand, this trial has become a significant burden to them since they also need to get more votes in the South East, where the Kurdish BDP is strong. Seen as a whole, this region is less populated though, and the possibility of capturing votes among the Kurds is already limited; that is, in my opinion, why this trial will go on. An interesting aspect is of course the impact of the international observers, and first of all those from the European Parliament. They were all gravely shocked by what we witnessed, and I am sure the reaction from Brussels will not be pleasant for the Turkish Government.
For further information please feel free to address me, and I will be obliged to answer your questions as well as I can.
Eugene Schoulgin
Istanbul, 20.01.2011
PEN International celebrates literature and promotes freedom of expression. Founded in 1921, our global community of writers now spans more than 100 countries. Our campaigns, events, publications and programmes aim to connect writers and readers wherever they are in the world. For further information please contact Cathy McCann at PEN International Writers in Prison Committee, Brownlow House, 50/51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7405 0339, email: cathal.sheerin@internationalpen.org.uk
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