Due Process: State Security Courts and Emergency Powers in South-East Turkey

Report of Trial Observer missions to South-east Turkey to observe the continuing trial of Lawyers & Others before the State Security Courts in Diyarbakir

The report contains an update account of the continuing trial against 25 lawyers who face prosecution by the Turkish authorities for alleged terrorist offences following their representation of alleged PKK members before the State Security Courts in Diyarbakir.

The report begins with an account of the background to this case, setting out the charges, the nature of the evidence against the accused and a chronology of the Court dates since this case first began, with a series of arrests in late 1993.

It then goes on to set the context to this trial by investigating the practice and procedure of the State Security Courts in Turkey, focusing on the four State Security Courts in Diyarbakir. Drawing on this information, the last part of the report seeks to examine the national legislation and the emergency powers in light of international standards of due process.

The allegations of torture and conditions of detention are the subject of an application to the European Commission on Human Rights which was declared partially Admissible in Strasbourg in December 1996. An account of these proceedings is set out in this report.

The appendices include a translation of the original Indictment against the lawyers, the relevant State of Emergency provisions, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) Public Statement on Torture, and Press reports on the recent changes in the law.