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"These explicit or implicit amnesties are a result of the Poliitcal Islam creating a new society and a project for a new legal order."
"The State does not protect the women and the children from violence, but also violates the obligation for notification, thus preventing the women from protecting themselves."
These are reactions to the new execution regulation adopted in the parliament on Friday (July 14), according to which a "good behavior reduction" will apply for the convicts in closed or open prisons as of July 31.
Seen as an innocent reduction of sentences at first, the new regulation is very threatening, especially for the women and the children.
"Religious laws implemented instead of the civil law"
Women Platform for Equality (EŞİK) member and lawyer Hülya Gülbahar has spoken to bianet and described the "parallel legal system implemented" in detail, giving examples.
“They are trying to abolish the Criminal Code and the Civil Law, and even the legal system that is connected to the universal legal system as a whole, and replace it with the religious law that they implement at the moment as a parallel law," Gülbahar said.
She argues that there is also a parallel state mechanism, working together with the religious sects.
"Besides the huge organization of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, the Ministries of Education, Defense, Health and all others are working like a parallel state mechanism with the protocols they make," she says.
"This Directorate of Religious Affair State has a parallel legal system, the principles and timing of which it determines and puts into effect together with the religious sects," she adds.
She gives the examples of justification, by religious sects, of systematic sexual abuse of girls, starting from the age of six, under the pretext of marriage. She gives male polygamy becoming widespread as another example.
“The opposition keeps silent”
Gülbahar is upset that the opposition has not challenged the bill making amendments in execution regulations effectively in the parliament. She sees the changes made as a significant step in the implementation of the parallel legal system that she describes.
“Unfortunately, with all these amnesty decisions, ordinary crimes that threaten society, such as selling drugs or femicide, are no longer crimes. They want to replace them with primitive ways of punishment, such as "comparison," "retaliation," "castration," or the similar.
"For instance, keeping someone who is sentenced to nine years of imprisonment one month in a closed prison and then letting him move to an open prison means nothing but legitimizing and encouraging these crimes," Gülbahar says.
15 women and 3 children were killed during Covid leaves
The EŞİK member believes that the permits to go out of prison due to the Covid pandemic which started in 2020 and continued until October 31, 2023, was also an important tool to build a parallel legal system.
Some male perpetrators let to leave the prison due to Covid have killed at least 15 women and 3 children, recalls Gülbahar.
She underlines that these are only the figures that have been reported in the press.
Notification obligation not met
The lawyer underlines that it was with the pressure of the women's movement that the obligation for notification was included in the related communique, but states that the obligation is not taken seriously or implemented correctly.
"Those who are pardoned now will again not be notified to their families, and therefore the women and the children will maybe find the perpetrators of violence against them next to them in a moment that they do not expect. The State does not protect the women and the children from violence, but also violates the obligation for notification, thus preventing the women from protecting themselves," Gülbahar says.
"Silence in the face of violence"
Gülbahar is surprised that the public and the opposition parties in the Parliament are keeping silent. "Until recently, when amnesty for abusers of children, convicts of rape, or the similar was brought up, there would be a great amount of reaction from the families of the victims, from the whole society, and the opposition parties would challenge the proposals and stop them," she says.
She believes that it is not a time to keep silent, rest on your oars or be afraid. She believes that the statement by the Ministry of Justice, that this was not an amnesty, shows that even a bigger amnesty is on the way.
"Women's lives are under threat"
Another lawyer who criticizes the new regulation is Birsen Baş- Topaloğlu from the Women's Rights Desk of the İstanbul Bar Association.
"It encourages potential perpetrators of femicides," she says and adds that it may risk the lives of women who have been hurt earlier, besides creating new victims.
“Impunity becomes widespread”
Lawyer Baş- Topaloğlu objects to the new regulation being presented as "not an amnesty."
“There was already a serious lack of inspection and risk for the women in relation to conditional releases. This last regulation can again cause a similar problem. This amendment will, unfortunately, create new victims and also poses a threat for the women and the children hurt by men in the past," she stated.
She says that what is important in a legal system is not that the sentences are very heavy but that they are executed. "Unfortunately in Turkey, we see that the verdicts especially those related to male violence are not executed and that this situation itself creates potential perpetrators. These regulations are not dissuasive, but on the contrary, encouraging. And the society perceives them as impunity," she adds. (EMK/PE)
