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Kurdish Human Rights Project: This is the legacy website of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, containing reports and news pertaining to human rights issues in the Kurdish Regions for 20 years.

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The Anti-Terror Laws and the Case of Murat Işıkırık
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 19:38

KHRP welcomes the recent report released by Human Rights Watch reviewing the use of the anti-terror laws to ‘prosecute and incarcerate demonstrators in Turkey’. The report cites the KHRP-assisted case of Murat Işıkırık Vs. Turkey that is currently pending at the European Court of Human Rights.

Işıkırık was arrested in March 2007 in Diyarbakir for participating in a demonstration and for attending the funeral of an illegal organisation. For this, he was charged and convicted on making propaganda for, and for committing crimes on behalf of, an illegal organization. Although Işıkırık denied the all of the charges, he was sentenced to prison and has already served three years, with four years left of his sentence.

In June 2006, Turkey amended its anti-terror laws which included a series of severe changes that fail to meet Turkey’s human rights obligations under international law, and have in practice been used to violate the human rights of its citizens. Since 2006 there have been numerous cases of individuals being tried under this amended Turkish legislation and ignoring the protection of human rights. There are paragraphs in the anti-terror laws that fail to respect international treaties on human rights; they provide a vague definition of terrorism, leaving interpretation up to the judges and increase the range of crimes being seen as ‘terrorist’ offences.

According to KHRP’s Chief Executive, ‘The Işıkırık case demonstrates the problems with Turkey’s vague definition of terrorism.  When an individual is imprisoned for mourning or for disagreeing with the state, there is a serious conflict with a commitment to freedoms of expression and association, the right to a fair trial, and the prohibition of ill treatment or torture.’  KHRP calls on Turkey to amend the laws in line with the Council of Europe Convention for the Prevention of Terrorism. Only then can Turkey maintain protection of the human rights of its citizens.