NEWS CENTER - ÖHD Secretary General Rengin Ergül stated that the EC Committee of Ministers may request an action plan regarding the "private law" imposed on the prisoners in İmralı and said, "All NGOs should put pressure on this issue and follow the process."

 

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) concluded the decision on the application of the lawyers regarding the aggravated life sentence given to PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan being held in İmralı Type F High Security Prison on March 18, 2014 and ruled that the sentence is in violation of the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights that prohibits torture and ill-treatment. In its decision known as "Öcalan-2", the ECtHR ruled that the aggravated life sentence imposed under the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) abolishes the "right to hope", therefore, the legislation supporting the sentence should be amended. The ECtHR later made similar decisions regarding the detainees Hayati Kaytan, Emin Gurban and Civan Boltan.

 

For years, Turkey did not take any steps against the violation decisions of the ECtHR. The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), Society and Law Research Foundation (TOHAV), Human Rights Association (İHD) and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) appealed to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe ( AK BK) on 26 July. The committee put the application on its agenda. The committee will discuss the decision at the meeting, which continues on its third day, in Strasbourg.

 

'RIGHT TO HOPE' 

 

One of the applicants, Renkin Ergül, Secretary General of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), made evaluations regarding the application they made and the decision of the Committee. Mentioning the aggravated life sentence given to Öcalan and other prisoners, Ergül said that there is no possibility of parole in Turkey under aggravated life imprisonment. Stating that the lack of the possibility of parole is a violation of the right to hope, Ergül said, "Until 2002, there was no prison sentence without the possibility of parole in Turkey. There was the death penalty, but it was not enforced. There were people sentenced to death after the 1980 coup, but after that period, death sentences were not carried out even if the person was sentenced to death. Abdullah Öcalan was sentenced to death back in 1999 but it was overturned due to Kophenag Criterias.

 

PUNISHMENT SPESIFIC TO ÖCALAN

 

Reminding that the death penalties were turned into aggravated life sentences according to the law no 4771, Ergül underlined that this law was put into effect when Öcalan was brought to Turkey. Ergül told that this law was spesific to Öcalan at first but then it was applied to all political prisoners.

 

INTERNATIONAL LAW

 

Pointing out that life imprisonment is a violation of all international laws, Ergül said: "Even in the International Criminal Court, the possibility of parole is legally regulated. Turkey applies this sentence even though it is not applied even in the International Criminal Court. The ECtHR gives a violation decision in all cases made by the states party to the convention. The highest prison sentence that can be given is determined to be 25 years and then that person needs to be paroled. But Turkey does not implement these decisions."

 

MANIPULATION OF TURKEY

 

Reminding that Turkey submitted two notifications and an “action plan” after the application to the committe, Ergül said: "Turkey insists that there is a possibility of parole but there are exceptions. In fact, these exceptions are the basis of our application, we have stated that Turkey discriminates in the legislation for crimes within the scope of the Anti-Terror Law during all legal amendments, and discriminates in practice as well. That's why Turkey's notifications and action plans are incomplete and manipulated, trying to mislead the Committee of Ministers. Because they insistently say that there is a possibility of parole in Turkey and that they are implementing the ECHR decision. They say how they implemented the ECHR decision, translated the decision and delivered it to all relevant authorities. However, this does not mean that the decision is implemented.

 

ECtHR CRITERIA: YOU CAN NOT HOLD PRISONERS IN ISOLATION

 

Emphasizing that the legal legislation should be changed for the implementation of the ECHR decision, Ergül pointed to the violation decision of the ECHR and said, "ECtHR says 'You will make the right of hope legally possible in your country and implement it" and underlined that it needs to see this being implemented. And the conditions of detention must serve the point of reintegrating the person into the society, which means,"You will not keep the person in isolation. We have set these 4 criteria in our statement."

 

TURKEY DOES NOT GIVE INFORMATION

 

Noting that statistical information was not given during the application, although they requested from Turkey, Ergül said, "We are constantly applying to obtain information from Turkey about how many convicts have been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment in Turkey, and how many people are on trial with a request of aggravated life sentence. However, Turkey refuses to respond. We haven't got a response from Turkey since 2014. Turkey still hasn't responded to these questions."

 

ACTION PLAN OF EC

 

Expressing that they are waiting for the outcome of the meeting, Ergül continued as follows: “After this meeting, the Committee of Ministers will both make statements about requesting action plans from countries and will announce the agenda of the next meeting to be held 3 months later. At this point, we expect and hope that they will ask for an action plan from Turkey. When this happens, four applicant institutions and NGOs should pressure Turkey and follow up the process."

 

 

MA / Özgür Paksoy