ECHR Condemns Turkey on Journalists Cases

The court released its decisions on 12 applications from Turkey on February 20.

One of the applicants, Mustafa Benli, the proprietor and editor-in-chief of the political magazines Hedef, Liseli Arkadaş and Alevi Halk Gerçeği was sentenced to 12 years and six months' imprisonment for being a member of the TDP (Turkish Revolution Party - Türkiye Devrim Partisi) in 1999.

The court condemned Turkey of violating Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely the right to a fair hearing.

Benli had been convicted by a State Security Court (DGM), which included a military judge at the time. The Strasbourg court rejected Benli's other claims regarding right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and freedom of expression.

On other accounts, Ayşe Oyman also received a positive result on her application for violation of the right to a fair hearing.

In April 2002 security forces searched the local office of the newspaper Yedinci Gündem, of which Oyman was the representative. In June 2002 she was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for distributing the newspaper in spite of a ban.

Lastly, the court condemned Turkey to 3 thousand euros in damages concerning the application of Osman Özçelik, former Deputy Chairman of the pro-Kurdish HADEP (People's Democratic Party).

The application concerns Özçelik's arrest and detention in police custody on 21 July 1999 during the course of a police operation carried out by the security forces against the pro-Kurdish guerilla group PKK.

Relying, in particular on Article 5 -right to liberty and security-, Özçelik complained that there was no reasonable suspicion for his arrest, that he was held in police custody without being brought before a judge and that he had no remedy under domestic law to challenge the lawfulness of his detention.

The case filed against Özçelik in Turkey with the allegation of "supporting the terrorist organization", had been put on hold with the law of general conditional pardon brought in 2002.(EÖ/EÜ)