Sentenced Writer Seeks Asylum

Pekdemir was found guilty in September 2001, under Article 169 of the Turkish Penal Code, for "supporting an illegal organisation", the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in his book "Öcalan Devlet mi?" (Is the State a Revenger?).

He was also accused of promoting "separatism" under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law for his references to "Kurdistan". In his defense statement, Pekdemir said that his aim was to criticize some PKK policies and actions, which he believed violated human rights.

He declared that it was "absurd to make propaganda for such an organization," whose objectives he protests. However, he was found guilty of having quoted excerpts from PKK documents in his book, which he then went on to critique.

Threads and attacks

Pekdemir was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. He appealed the sentence, but this was rejected and his conviction was finalized on 17 April 2002. As is common practice for those convicted of political offences, prisoners are granted a brief period between conviction and the requirement to enter prison. Pekdemir took advantage of this practice to leave Turkey.

He is now in exile in Germany, where he is seeking political asylum. He left behind his wife and seven-year-old son.

Pekdemir has a long history of political activism. He spent eight and a half years as a political prisoner in the 1980s. Since then he has continued to challenge the authorities, publishing books on a number of issues.

Among them are books critical of extremist Muslim groups, the Turkish right wing, the Armenian question and the activities of the Turkish army in the southeast of the country. As a result, he has suffered threats and attacks.

Eight and half years in military prison

Pekdemir's situation has been further compounded by another legal process, which is still under way and for which he could be convicted to life imprisonment. Pekdemir is one of 23 people on trial in this case. All the defendants served prison terms in the 1980s for their membership in Dev Yol (Revolutionary Way, now defunct), a radical socialist movement active in the 1970s.

Pekdemir served eight and a half years in military detention, where he claims to have been severely tortured while under interrogation, and to have spent much of his imprisonment in poor and cramped conditions. He was freed in 1989.

His co-defendants, who received sentences of life imprisonment and death, were themselves released after their sentences were reduced to eight to ten years' imprisonment following a 1992 amnesty.

In 1995, the Turkish Supreme Court reviewed a number of the sentences of leading Dev Yol members. The court concluded that the time they had served was insufficient and called for a retrial. The prosecution recommended that Pekdemir be sentenced to life or capital punishment.

The trial reopened in June 2001 and is still under way. The final verdict is expected to be given on 27 June. The defendants have appealed against the long trial process to the European Court on Human Rights, which, in early 2001, declared the Dev Yol trials to be unfair and obliged the Turkish government to make reparations to many of the defendants.

International PEN is deeply alarmed by the prospect that Melih Pekdemir may be required to return to prison to serve a sentence for an "offence" for which he has already spent a considerable period of imprisonment, in addition to the recent sentence served for his writings.

Background:

Pekdemir was born in 1953 and until his flight from Turkey in April, lived in Ankara with his wife and seven-year-old son. He is a graduate of sociology and entered left-wing politics during and following his university years. He was arrested following a military coup in 1980. After his release in 1989, he resumed writing and established his own publishing house.

Among others, he published a monthly review entitled "Democrat." His most popular book, "Mummy, Look, The King is Naked!" , is a review of the revolutionary left following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. He also returned to political activity and is currently a leading member of the Party of Freedom and Solidarity, which he describes as being "structurally pluralistic and programmatically in favor of a democratic left movement."

Pekdemir has publicly condemned the extremist group Dev Sol and its "cult of death." He accuses Dev Sol of forcing its members to participate in the current hunger-strike protests against F-type prisons, self-immolation and attacks against others through systematic threats and violence, often killing its own members who object. A fervent socialist himself, Pekdemir accuses Dev Sol of tarnishing the socialist movement as a whole. As a result, Dev Sol have declared Pekdemir to be a renegade and agent of the Turkish state and his life is under threat. (NM)

* WiPC: Writers in Prison Committee is a brunch of International PEN.