German fascism against Revolutionaries from Turkey

Thu Jun 3 12:09:06 BST 1999

WHY IS GERMANY SEEKING REVENGE?

The wave of state repression after the ban on the DHKP-C on August 13,
1998, continues. Lately Serafettin G., responsible for Germany, was
sentenced to 10 years imprisonment as a "leading spokesperson" while
two other persons were sentenced to seven and five years for being
"members of terrorist association". These sentences, seen by many as
to high, were mainly based on the statements of spy who has been
working for the intelligence service for eight years and a former
activist who offered his services to the police in November last year
in exchange for a permit to stay in Germany and the covering of his
debts to Austria for smuggling cigarettes./

The same chamber of the High Court in Hamburg which announced these
sentences is now ready to announce its verdict in the trial against
Ilhan Y. On May 4, 1999, the judges senate came up with is "balance"
which was quite shocking. It's hard to believe that this intermediate
verdict is really coming from a court. It's even more reactionary than
the verdicts of the military courts in Turkey.

Ilhan Y. is being accused of having "murdered" the MHP-sympathiser and
snack bar owner Erol K. A life sentence is being demanded. The trial
has been going on for two months now. If all the witnesses and all the
evidence had been valued objectively, Ilhan Y. would have been
acquitted a long time ago. But Ilhan Y. is being prosecuted in a
political trial before a State Security Court in the context of the
DHKP-C ban. It can not be avoided to look at this state security court
as a more perfected version of the Turkish military courts. Since the
beginning, this court has been going for a life sentence. 

THE TRIAL

Ilhan Y. was arrested some one and a half hour after the incident in
the night of April 25, 1998, in which Erol K. died. Two other persons
were arrested with him. But after three months, the court ordered his
release. The witnesses of the incident could not identify him nor were
there any gun smoke traces on his hands or clothes. Then, a year
later, when Ilhan Y. was going to be heard as a witness in the trial
against the three DHKP-C activists, the state prosecution only asked
him: "We know you killed Erol K., where did you hide the weapon?" and
Ilhan Y. was arrested in court, the same court which had asked him as
a witness! The court now wants to sentence him to life, using the same
evidence which he was acquitted on last year.

In case he wouldn't confess: 20, 25, even 28 years... And because of
the "extra-ordinary severity of the case" in isolation. Of course, as
the courts states in its intermediate balance, such a verdict would be
damaging for the organisation as well, which ban would be cemented
with a life-long 129a (art. 129a: punishes membership in a terrorist
association) verdict. Ilhan Y. "should consider that very carefully".

All the evidence which speaks for the innocence of Ilhan Y. is
neglected and the statement that the court and the state prosecution
are convinced of the guilt of the accused is seen as sufficient.
Sufficient for a High Court to sentence a person to life imprisonment
although that same person was acquitted before in the same case. Only
a confession is required now which they try to achieve through
coercion, threatening somebody with 25 years imprisonment. The
possibility of the INNOCENCE of this person is not even considered.
There is a corps, and now they need a perpetrator.

BECAUSE THEY ARE CONVINCED!

They try to sentence a person to life because they are convinced that
a word in a tapped telephone conversation must be interpreted in a
certain way, because they are convinced that the witnesses refuse to
identify Ilhan Y. because they are afraid, because they are convinced
that people went to the scene of the killing because the organisation
is "cold-blooded" and wants to "shed blood". 

Interpreters of the BKA (Federal Crime Investigation Agency) are heard
as witnesses who insist that the word which was used was "scheyt",
although such a word doesn't even exist in the Turkish language,
although that word doesn't make any sense, although a list of
independent interpreters were unable to identify such a word in the
telephone conversations. "Take care there aren't to many martyrs
(`scheyt")", the responsible for Germany, now sentenced to 10 years,
supposedly said on the phone to a third person. Such a word can be
constructed by just adding a "t" to the word "schey", which means a
thing, an item. If the "t" is left out, the sentence would be "Take
care that not to much happens". The Turkish "Schey" means "things".
The words "scheyt" is non-existent. The word for "martyr" is "sehit",
emphasising the second syllable, "hit". The BKA-interpreter insisted
in his statement that Serafettin G. spoke a very clear and accent-free
Turkish and that he therefore should have said "bir schey". But at the
same time he claims that Serafettin G., speaking Turkish so well,
utters a completely non-sensical sentence, and even uses a word,
"scheyt", which doesn't even exist. This is one of the major points in
the Ilhan Y. trial but the court doesn't accept further discussions
and doesn't even agree to listen to the tapes a second time. 

No gun smoke traces were found on Ilhan Y's hands and clothes when he
was arrested immediately after the incident. This was one of the
reasons for the acquittal at the time. But, after a expert of the
ballistic department of the detective force was heard as a witness,
the High Court only took to the words "when you wash your hands
carefully, then" as decisive, commenting: "well, that's it!". The
previous statement  that traces also show up at parts of the clothes
like sleeves, arms and trousers, and that Ilhan Y. just didn't have
the time to change clothes, no longer played any role...

Furthermore, the court and the state prosecution did their utmost to
secure a life sentence for Ilhan Y. To make things worse, the court
wants to condemn him for "insidious and treacherous murder", claiming
that this was a planned attack where the victim was shot from behind,
even though everything indicates that somebody shot Erol K. because he
pulled a gun first.

The tapped telephone conversations, part of the main evidence, are
seen as 100 per cent true and reliable, and it is out of the question
to hear the tapes once more, because the translation is said to be
correct, and everything was said that way. However, the words of a
third person to Serafettin G., "... and he pulled a gun or something
and then Ismail fired twice", are regarded as a matter of secondary
importance. "... or something" is regarded as decisive. Erol K. in no
way was the innocence himself, on the contrary, he was a know
sympathiser of the MHP. The entire family moves in those circles and
his father is said to have been the chairman of the fascist Idealists
Centre in Turkey. It is said in the neighbourhood that Erol K's entire
family is involved in drugs. One of his brother is now in jail for
that reason. That such a person could posses a weapon, that's
considered as infeasible by the court. But Ilhan Y, member of the
DHKP-C, yes he and nobody else, he was armed to his teeth and eager to
kill Erol K...

The shooter, according a third person on the phone , is said to have
been a person called "Ismail". And according to the court Ilhan Y is
"Ismail". This allegedly was discovered during a search by the police
when Ilhan Y. was addressed with that name and where the leading
police officer immediately took not of that. That no other police
officer remembers anything like this, not even the Turkish police
officer who was present as an interpreter, and especially asked if
such a thing occurred, that's interesting.

These are the main points in the "evidence" which must put Ilhan Y.
behind bars for life. And that will be the case, because the court is
convinced of that. 

WE URGE EVERYBODY TO VOICE THEIR PROTEST AGAINST THIS ARBITRARINESS
AND TO SUPPORT ILHAN Y. ON JUNE 7, 1999, AT 2.30 P.M. IN THE OLG
HAMBURG (STATE HIGH COURT) AS TRIAL MONITORS

NO COURT IN THE WORLD CAN CONDEMN  A PERSON TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT BASED
ON SUCH EVIDENCE!

DHKP-C trials monitoring group

-- 
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