TURKEY: UN CONDEMNATION OF "ARB

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Re: TURKEY: UN CONDEMNATION OF "ARBITRARY" JAILING OF POC's

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News Service 153/95
AI INDEX: EUR 44/85/95
EMBARGOED UNTIL 0001 HRS GMT 22 AUGUST 1995

TURKEY: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL WELCOMES UNITED NATIONS
CONDEMNATION OF "ARBITRARY"  JAILING OF PRISONERS OF
CONSCIENCE

Amnesty International welcomes a resolution by the United
Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which declares
the imprisonment of Gunay Aslan, Dr Haluk Gerger and Sedat
Aslantas  as arbitrary and requests that the Government of
Turkey take the necessary steps to remedy the situation. 

      The human rights organization considers the three men,
imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of
expression, to be prisoners of conscience and submitted their
cases to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in July
1994.  

      In its decision, the Working Group expressed its
concern regarding "the imprecise nature of charges such as
those provided under Article 8/1 of  the Anti-Terror Law,
which could be used as a pretext for grave violations of the
right to freedom of opinion and expression". 

      The Working Group noted that the three men had made no
incitement to violence and that therefore the application of
this article constituted "a violation of their right to
freedom of opinion and expression, a right guaranteed under
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights".  

      The three men were arrested under Article 8 of the
Anti-Terror Law, under which most prisoners of conscience in
Turkey are held.  It provides for up to five years'
imprisonment for "jeopardizing the territorial integrity of
the country by disseminating separatist propaganda". Moves to
amend Article 8 were opposed by the armed forces and have so
far failed to receive parliamentary approval.

      Amnesty  International calls for the immediate and
unconditional release of  Dr Haluk Gerger and Sedat Aslantas
as well as the release of  all other prisoners of conscience
currently imprisoned. The organization also calls for the
immediate repeal or revision of Article 8.

BACKGROUND
      Gunay Aslan, writer and journalist, was released in
January after serving 15 months of a 20-month prison sentence
in connection with his book "33 Bullets", about the alleged
massacre of Kurdish villages in Turkey more than 50 years
ago.

      Dr Haluk Gerger, academic, journalist and founding
member of the Turkish Human Rights Association (HRA),  is
serving a 20-month prison sentence for a letter sent to a
memorial meeting for three political prisoners who were
executed in 1972. He is due to be released in September 1995.

      Sedat Aslantas, lawyer and Deputy Secretary General of
the HRA,  is serving a three-year prison sentence for a
speech he made to the 1992 Annual Congress of the HRA, in
which he referred to the problems of Turkey's Kurdish
minority. He was arrested in December 1994.  
ENDS\













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