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Impunity for police abuses
The 11 January reform package ended the possibility of prison sentences handed down for torture and ill-treatment by police being suspended or converted to fines. The new law was not applied retrospectively. As a result, trials and sentences in such cases continued to be suspended, sometimes on the basis of previous laws.
On 18 February the trial of Süleyman Ulusoy (known as “the Hose”), a police superintendent, was suspended under the terms of the December 2000 “amnesty law” (Law No. 4616 on Conditional Suspension of Trials and Sentences for Offences Committed up until April 1999). A videotape showing him beating transvestites with a hosepipe in the Beyoğlu police headquarters in Istanbul had been broadcast on television in 2000. He remained on duty in Istanbul.
Two police officers convicted of ill-treating Veli Kaya, a student taking part in a demonstration on 6 November 2002, received a six-month suspended prison sentence in June. The rescue of Veli Kaya by members of the public from a depot beneath a branch of the Şeker Bank in Ankara where he was beaten by police had been broadcast on television. The case was referred to the Supreme Court.
The 11 January reforms also removed the requirement to secure permission from a senior official to investigate allegations of torture or ill-treatment by police. This reform was sometimes ignored.
Ali Ulvi Uludoğan and his brother İlhan Uludoğan were detained on 25 May for driving through a red traffic light in the Kulu district of Konya province. They were reportedly beaten, kicked and subjected to verbal sexual harassment in detention in Kulu police station. In contravention of the 11 January reforms, the Kulu kaymakam (local state official) on 8 August decided not to allow an investigation of the alleged torture and ill-treatment.
The 7 August reform package stipulated that trials relating to cases of torture and ill-treatment should be prioritized. Despite this, the ratio of prosecutions of members of the security forces in relation to the number of reports of torture and ill-treatment remained extremely low.
The trial of the police officers charged with torturing two women – Fatma Deniz Polattaş and 16-year-old N.C.S. – in İskenderun police headquarters in March 1999 was repeatedly delayed because of the Forensic Institute’s two-year failure to supply medical reports detailing their torture.
In a few cases, steps were taken to hold to account perpetrators of human rights violations.
In the final stage of the “Manisa Youths” case, the Court of Appeal on 4 April approved the prison sentences ranging from five to 11 years of 10 police officers found guilty of torturing 16 young people in December 1995. The high-profile case almost exceeded the statute of limitations, grounds on which less well-known cases faced collapse.
On 22 September, Adil Serdar Saçan, former head of the Istanbul Organized Crime Branch, was reportedly discharged from the police force by the Interior Ministry for ignoring torture committed under his authority. The prosecutor’s indictment also detailed incidents of torture committed by him personally. This was a landmark ruling.
Harassment of human rights defenders
A range of laws and regulations was used to restrict freedom of expression and obstruct the activities of human rights defenders. Peaceful statements and activities were prosecuted on grounds of “insulting” various state institutions (Article 159 of the TPC), “aiding and abetting an illegal organization” (Article 169) or “inciting the people to enmity” (Article 312). Other activities were prohibited or punished under Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, the Law on Associations, press laws and public order legislation. In some cases human rights defenders were imprisoned. However, most of the investigations and trials resulting from such prosecutions ended in acquittals or with sentences being suspended or commuted to fines, highlighting what AI regarded as a pattern of judicial harassment of human rights activists.
Some individuals – including Alp Ayan, a psychiatrist at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) in Izmir; Rıdvan Kızgın, Head of the Bingöl branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD); and Eren Keskin, a lawyer who co-runs a legal aid project for women survivors of sexual assault in custody – appeared to have been particularly targeted. Punitive fines were a heavy burden on branches of associations and their members.
On 12 November, the first hearing of a trial against TİHV took place in Ankara. Seeking the suspension of nine executive board members of the foundation, the prosecutor alleged that in 2001 TİHV had violated the Law on Foundations by “cooperating” with international organizations without securing the permission of the Council of Ministers, and by raising funds via the Internet. The alleged “cooperation” took the form of translating reports and distributing them to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the European Parliament Rapporteur for Turkey, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
Özkan Hoşhanli began serving a 15-month prison sentence on 28 October. He had attempted to observe demonstrations in April and May 1999 in his capacity as the then Chair of the human rights group Mazlum Der (Organization of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People) in Malatya, and was sentenced to prison and fined in May 2003 under Law No. 2911 for “participating in an illegal demonstration and not dispersing after orders and warnings, and having to be dispersed by government forces with force”. He was a prisoner of conscience.
According to the İHD, 450 prosecutions had been brought against it since 2000 compared to 300 in the previous 14 years. On 6 May police searched the headquarters and local offices of the İHD in Ankara and confiscated books, reports on human rights violations, files, cassettes and computers. The Ministry of Justice informed AI that the search had been carried out on the orders of Ankara State Security Court under Article 169 of the TPC because the İHD was suspected of “coordinating a campaign to voice support for the terrorist organization PKK/KADEK [Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress]”.
Teachers and health workers were often posted away from their home as a disciplinary measure for involvement in human rights or trade union activities, and some student activists were expelled or suspended from university.
Violence against women
Sexual assault and harassment of women in police custody continued to be a grave concern, and in February AI published a report on the subject.
Family violence, including so-called “honour killings”, was also a grave concern. AI supported the campaign of women’s groups in Turkey to remove gender-discriminatory articles in the revised draft of the TPC, work on which was started by a parliamentary sub-committee in October.
Killings in disputed circumstances
A few dozen civilians were shot dead by the security forces and village guards, most of them in the southeastern and eastern provinces. Many may have been victims of extrajudicial executions or the use of excessive force.
On 8 July, five people in the village of Pul, Bingöl province, were killed by unknown assailants. There were conflicting allegations as to whether the perpetrators belonged to the state security forces or the PKK/KADEK.
The 11 January reform package ended the possibility of prison sentences handed down for torture and ill-treatment by police being suspended or converted to fines. The new law was not applied retrospectively. As a result, trials and sentences in such cases continued to be suspended, sometimes on the basis of previous laws.
On 18 February the trial of Süleyman Ulusoy (known as “the Hose”), a police superintendent, was suspended under the terms of the December 2000 “amnesty law” (Law No. 4616 on Conditional Suspension of Trials and Sentences for Offences Committed up until April 1999). A videotape showing him beating transvestites with a hosepipe in the Beyoğlu police headquarters in Istanbul had been broadcast on television in 2000. He remained on duty in Istanbul.
Two police officers convicted of ill-treating Veli Kaya, a student taking part in a demonstration on 6 November 2002, received a six-month suspended prison sentence in June. The rescue of Veli Kaya by members of the public from a depot beneath a branch of the Şeker Bank in Ankara where he was beaten by police had been broadcast on television. The case was referred to the Supreme Court.
The 11 January reforms also removed the requirement to secure permission from a senior official to investigate allegations of torture or ill-treatment by police. This reform was sometimes ignored.
Ali Ulvi Uludoğan and his brother İlhan Uludoğan were detained on 25 May for driving through a red traffic light in the Kulu district of Konya province. They were reportedly beaten, kicked and subjected to verbal sexual harassment in detention in Kulu police station. In contravention of the 11 January reforms, the Kulu kaymakam (local state official) on 8 August decided not to allow an investigation of the alleged torture and ill-treatment.
The 7 August reform package stipulated that trials relating to cases of torture and ill-treatment should be prioritized. Despite this, the ratio of prosecutions of members of the security forces in relation to the number of reports of torture and ill-treatment remained extremely low.
The trial of the police officers charged with torturing two women – Fatma Deniz Polattaş and 16-year-old N.C.S. – in İskenderun police headquarters in March 1999 was repeatedly delayed because of the Forensic Institute’s two-year failure to supply medical reports detailing their torture.
In a few cases, steps were taken to hold to account perpetrators of human rights violations.
In the final stage of the “Manisa Youths” case, the Court of Appeal on 4 April approved the prison sentences ranging from five to 11 years of 10 police officers found guilty of torturing 16 young people in December 1995. The high-profile case almost exceeded the statute of limitations, grounds on which less well-known cases faced collapse.
On 22 September, Adil Serdar Saçan, former head of the Istanbul Organized Crime Branch, was reportedly discharged from the police force by the Interior Ministry for ignoring torture committed under his authority. The prosecutor’s indictment also detailed incidents of torture committed by him personally. This was a landmark ruling.
Harassment of human rights defenders
A range of laws and regulations was used to restrict freedom of expression and obstruct the activities of human rights defenders. Peaceful statements and activities were prosecuted on grounds of “insulting” various state institutions (Article 159 of the TPC), “aiding and abetting an illegal organization” (Article 169) or “inciting the people to enmity” (Article 312). Other activities were prohibited or punished under Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, the Law on Associations, press laws and public order legislation. In some cases human rights defenders were imprisoned. However, most of the investigations and trials resulting from such prosecutions ended in acquittals or with sentences being suspended or commuted to fines, highlighting what AI regarded as a pattern of judicial harassment of human rights activists.
Some individuals – including Alp Ayan, a psychiatrist at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) in Izmir; Rıdvan Kızgın, Head of the Bingöl branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD); and Eren Keskin, a lawyer who co-runs a legal aid project for women survivors of sexual assault in custody – appeared to have been particularly targeted. Punitive fines were a heavy burden on branches of associations and their members.
On 12 November, the first hearing of a trial against TİHV took place in Ankara. Seeking the suspension of nine executive board members of the foundation, the prosecutor alleged that in 2001 TİHV had violated the Law on Foundations by “cooperating” with international organizations without securing the permission of the Council of Ministers, and by raising funds via the Internet. The alleged “cooperation” took the form of translating reports and distributing them to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the European Parliament Rapporteur for Turkey, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
Özkan Hoşhanli began serving a 15-month prison sentence on 28 October. He had attempted to observe demonstrations in April and May 1999 in his capacity as the then Chair of the human rights group Mazlum Der (Organization of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People) in Malatya, and was sentenced to prison and fined in May 2003 under Law No. 2911 for “participating in an illegal demonstration and not dispersing after orders and warnings, and having to be dispersed by government forces with force”. He was a prisoner of conscience.
According to the İHD, 450 prosecutions had been brought against it since 2000 compared to 300 in the previous 14 years. On 6 May police searched the headquarters and local offices of the İHD in Ankara and confiscated books, reports on human rights violations, files, cassettes and computers. The Ministry of Justice informed AI that the search had been carried out on the orders of Ankara State Security Court under Article 169 of the TPC because the İHD was suspected of “coordinating a campaign to voice support for the terrorist organization PKK/KADEK [Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress]”.
Teachers and health workers were often posted away from their home as a disciplinary measure for involvement in human rights or trade union activities, and some student activists were expelled or suspended from university.
Violence against women
Sexual assault and harassment of women in police custody continued to be a grave concern, and in February AI published a report on the subject.
Family violence, including so-called “honour killings”, was also a grave concern. AI supported the campaign of women’s groups in Turkey to remove gender-discriminatory articles in the revised draft of the TPC, work on which was started by a parliamentary sub-committee in October.
Killings in disputed circumstances
A few dozen civilians were shot dead by the security forces and village guards, most of them in the southeastern and eastern provinces. Many may have been victims of extrajudicial executions or the use of excessive force.
On 8 July, five people in the village of Pul, Bingöl province, were killed by unknown assailants. There were conflicting allegations as to whether the perpetrators belonged to the state security forces or the PKK/KADEK.
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