International human rights organisations from nine countries urged Turkish Government not to discriminate against political prisoners in its forthcoming early parole bill.
Turkey | 25 Bar Associations made a 7-article declaration:
i. The Council of Judges and Prosecutors has entirely politicized,
ii. Turkey is experiencing the most severe judicial crisis of its history,
iii. Turkey has become the largest prisoner of lawyers.
On 21 February 2020, thirty bar associations called for the resignation of the members of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) over its systematic intervention into the judicial process and (re)detention of individuals even before or just after their release. The latest instance was replacing three judges and initiating an investigation against them who acquitted Osman Kavala and others in conformity with the judgment of European Court of Human Rights.
On 1 February 2020, the Arrested Lawyers Initiative published an advanced update of its report titled ‘Extradition to Turkey: One-way Ticket to Torture and Unfair Trial’ which was published in February of 2018.
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative published the update of its report named ‘Mass Prosecution of Lawyers in Turkey‘ of which previous version was published together with the Italian National Bar Council (Il Consiglio Nazionale Forense) in English and Italian on the occasion of Lawyers’… Read More ›
Our third interview is with Irma van den Berg who is the president of Lawyers for Lawyers, since 1 July 2019. Ms Berg is a lawyer at Six Advocaten and has served as a board member of Lawyers for Lawyers for the last 10 years.
The statistics highlight that Turkish public prosecutors have filed more than 392,000 charges under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code within the last seven-years. What is worse, between 2016 and 2019 more than 220,000 individuals have been sentenced for membership of an armed terrorist organisation.
Istanbul Heavy Penal Court has sentenced Taner Kılıç, former chair of Amnesty Turkey, to 6 years and 3 months under Article 314 § 2 of Turkish Penal Code which stipulates the membership of an armed terrorist organisation. İdil Eser former director of Amnesty Turkey, Özlem Dalkıran of Citizens’ Assembly and Günal Kurşun of the Human Rights Agenda Association were all convicted for 25 months for assisting a terrorist organisation.
Updates July 6, 2020 – The Bill was passed by the Justice Commission of the Parliament and referred to the General Assembly for final deliberation and voting. What does the Bill bring? Draft law reduces leading bar associations’ authority, leads… Read More ›
Turkish Government posed to intervene into elections of Bar Associations. The Government’s purpose is to diminish the influence of the Bar Associations of Turkey’s large cities, which are sensitive about the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, women’s rights and human rights violations. Bar Associations, such as Ankara, Diyarbakir, Sanliurfa, Antalya and Izmir, are also very sensitive to torture and enforced disappearance complaints, and have published several reports documenting such incidents, which has disturbed the Government.
We have initiated a new project in which we will publish a series of brief interviews with prominent European lawyers, academics and executives of judges’ associations. Our first interview was with Adv. Francesco Caia, who is the Coordinator for Human… Read More ›
We have initiated a new project in which we will publish a series of brief interviews with prominent European lawyers, academics and executives of judges’ associations. Our first interview is with Adv. Francesco Caia, who is the Coordinator for Human Rights and International Relations of the Italian National Bar Association (CNF) and Vice-President of the International Observatory for Endangered Lawyers.
In response to our call for action, twelve organisations sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, General Director of Prisons and Detention Houses, Chief Judge of the Court of Cassation’s 16th Chamber with respect to lawyer Turan Canpolat has… Read More ›
The collapse of judicial independence and the breakdown of the rule of law have taken many forms in Turkey over the course of the past several years. The political subjugation of the judiciary and the post-coup crackdown on the members… Read More ›
Turan Canpolat is a member of the Malatya (Turkey) Bar Association. He is fifty years old and had practiced law for 21 years when he was unlawfully arrested on 27th January, 2016. On the morning of 27th January, 2016, Turan… Read More ›
Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an ex officio investigation against the Ankara Bar Association because of its statement denouncing Turkey’s top mufti Ali Erbaş who, during his Friday sermon on April 24, alleged that LGBT people were the source for evil and epidemic.
Law no. 7242’s amendments worsen already existing injustice in Turkey’s criminal justice system. The notorious mob leader, Alaattin Cakici, was released as soon as President Erdogan approved the amendments, while the award winning author, Ahmet Altan, hundreds of lawyers and journalists, remain in prison. Considering that, only in Izmir (Buca) Prison, 65 inmates tested COVID19, this danger is not remote, imagined or simply feared but actual and imminent. Therefore, we must continue to advocate on their behalf to show they are not forsaken.
Brussel based human rights group Platform for Peace and Justice published a new report titled ‘The Erosion of Property Rights In Turkey’. The report shows how the Turkish Government unlawfully intervenes into property rights in the pretext of the state of emergency and counter-terrorism measures.
Commissioner for Human Rights of the COE urges Turkey to implement the UN Human Rights Committee’s decisions regarding detentions based on using Bylock and having account in Bank Asya.
The German Federal Constitutional Court (GFCC) decided a lower court’s decision ordering the extradition of an individual to Turkey violated German law and Germany’s obligation deriving from international law.
The GFCC ruled that Turkey highly will not respect minimum standards deriving from international law. Therefore, an extradition decision which relied on the assurances provided by the Turkish government that the prosecution was not based on political grounds was unlawful and thus should be annulled.
Human Rights NGOs: Torture and Ill-treatment in custody have become systematic practice of Ankara Police. Report of Ankara Bar Association confirm the complaints of torture and ill-treatment.
The @ArrestedLawyers Initiative published a factsheet on Turkey’s state of emergency dismissals. It includes the latest statistics on the Inquiry Commission’s work, criteria applied for the dismissals and the definition of the connection and cohesion made by Ankara Regional Appeal Court.
