Acquittal in Chomsky Case an Important Step

Sugden: Years of monitoring human rights in Turkey have shown us that when one law is improved, another is pressed into service to restrict peaceful expression,

New york

Human Rights Watch today welcomed the acquittal of academic Noam Chomsky's Turkish publisher, Fatih Tas, as an important step toward improving Turkey's record on free expression.

In an unusually abrupt proceeding attended by Chomsky on February 13, the Istanbul State Security Court acquitted Tas of charges of publishing "separatist propaganda," prohibited under Article 8 of Turkey's Anti-Terror Law. The text at issue was a summary of the human rights situation in Southeastern Turkey, written by Chomsky.

An extraordinary outcome

The case had embarrassed the Turkish government, which has committed itself to improving freedom of expression in Turkey as part of its bid to join the European Union.

Tas was acquitted on the first day of the trial, after the prosecutor who had brought the charges unexpectedly requested an acquittal.

"It is an extraordinary outcome. Normally a case like this would drag on for a year and a half and end with a prison sentence," said Jonathan Sugden, Human Rights Watch's Turkey researcher, in Istanbul to observe the Tas trial.

"We only hope that it is more than a one-time response to Chomsky's celebrity status and signals a new approach by Turkey's justice system to respect the right to free expression in all cases."

Duzel's case

Human Rights Watch said that the significance of the decision would become clear in the coming weeks, as courts reach judgments in similar pending cases. Nese Duzel, a journalist whose case also came before the Istanbul State Security Court Wednesday, faces charges of "incitement to racial hatred" for publishing an interview describing the situation of the Alevi minority in Turkey.

In contrast to the Chomsky case, proceedings in the Duzel case were postponed, pending the entry into force of amendments to the article of the criminal code under which Duzel was charged.

The amendments were part of what the government called a "mini-democracy package," aimed at addressing restrictions on free expression that violated international standards.

Human Rights Watch discounted the impact of the recent reform, which has left in place many legal prohibitions that could be used to restrict protected expression.

"Years of monitoring human rights in Turkey have shown us that when one law is improved, another is pressed into service to restrict peaceful expression," Sugden explained.

"What would truly be meaningful would be for the Turkish justice system to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights and throw out abusive cases like they did in the Tas case."