6 Children Sentenced to 7.5 Years in Jail

The 5^th High Criminal Court in Diyarbakır in the predominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey charged six children with terror crimes and handed down prison sentences of 7.5 years each because they allegedly attended a demonstration in the city of Şırnak.

The court initially sentenced the six children aged 15-18 to imprisonment of a total of 13.5 years each: 7.5 years for "membership of a terror organization and committing crimes on the behalf of the organization", one year for "spreading propaganda for a terror organization" based on article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law and another five years under charges of opposing the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations.

The penalties were reduced to the fact that all defendants were underage.

"Court considered police statements"

The children's defence lawyer Barış Güngör from the Diyarbakır Bar Association told bianet that the file did not provide sufficient evidence for a conviction:

"The file does not contain any pictures or further evidence which prove that the children in fact attended the demonstration or threw stones besides the explanations and records of the police. There is only one picture showing one child watching the group. The only piece of evidence included in the file is the police record stating that they saw the children and that they threw stones at them. The court recognized these statements".

"Compensation is impossible"

Lawyer Göngör assessed the court decision as follows:

"The decision is unacceptable. The laws enabling a conviction of children are anti-democratic. This is a political decision. It does not comply with any legal proceedings in favour of children. The Anti-Terror Act is the reason for irreparable damage done to children".

Subsequent to legal amendments enforced in 2006, juveniles aged 15-18 are currently tried under the same conditions as adults. After criticism voiced by rights defenders, the government prepared further legal amendments to change the regulation which is considered to oppose national and international provisions on children's rights.

The according draft law has not been passed through parliament yet. (SP/EÜ/VK)