ECHR: Compensation for Human Rights Activist Birdal

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decreed that the punishment of Akin Birdal, former president of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and now MP for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in Diyarbakir, for a speech he made on World Peace Day 12 years ago was a violation of the freedom of expression.

Speech punished with imprisonment 

Birdal spoke at the United Communist Party branch in Mersin, southern Turkey, in September 1995. He said in his speech that the constitution of 12 September [i.e. the constitution created by the military junta after the military coup in 1980] did not protect Kurdish citizens. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine by a State Security Court in Adana in December 1998 and went to prison in 2000.

Although Birdal was finally acquitted in February 2005, he was not compensated for his time in prison, as a law concerned with such cases only came into effect in June 2005.

Birdal then appealed to the ECHR, quoting Article 10, which guarantees the freedom of expression, and Article 6/1, which is concerned with fair trials.

"No fair trial" with military judges 

The ECHR, as in several cases before, said that it was normal to "doubt the neutrality and independence" of the State Security Courts, which included military members at that time.

It decreed unanimously that there had not been a fair trial.

7,000 Euros compensation 

The ECHR further evaluated Birdal's speech as a critical look at the situation in the Southeast of Turkey and concluded that, since the speech did not include incitement to violence, armed resistance or a revolution, the punishment for "inciting hatred and hostility" was "disproportionate for a legitimate purpose." The court decreed that there was no hate speech in the talk and sentenced Turkey to paying Birdal a total of 7,000 Euros compensation. (EÖ/NZ/AG)