TURKEY: LEGAL CHANGES WILL NOT

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Re: TURKEY: LEGAL CHANGES WILL NOT RESTORE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

rver 2.20)
           id VT25146; Fri, 03 Nov 1995 22:34:44 -0800

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News Service 205/95
AI INDEX: EUR 44/120/95
30 OCTOBER 1995

TURKEY: DISAPPOINTING LEGAL CHANGES WILL NOT RESTORE FREEDOM
OF EXPRESSION

Amnesty International expressed deep disappointment over the
modifications to Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law agreed by
the Turkish parliament and president over the weekend. 

      "We can find little to applaud in changes which leave
intact legislation under which people can be jailed for
expressing non-violent opinions," Amnesty International said
today.

      "The changes in the Anti-Terror law neither secure the
release of prisoners of conscience currently in custody, nor
rule out future prosecutions and prison sentences for people
expressing non-violent opinions."

      Under the revision ~separatist propaganda~ remains an
imprisonable offence, even when the defendant has in no way
advocated violence, but the phrase ~irrespective of the
methods and aims and ideas~ has been removed. Maximum
sentences were reduced from five years to three years, and in
dealing with first offences, courts are given discretion to
fine or give suspended sentences. Prisoners already serving
sentences will, however, be considered for possible release
by State Security Courts during the next month. 

      Pressure for change to Article 8 increased during 1995,
largely as a result of the European Parliament~s condition
that a planned customs union between the European Union (EU)
and Turkey could only be approved after clear progress in
human rights. As it became obvious that the Turkish
government was not even considering the urgently needed
broader reform, including measures for the prevention of
torture and ~disappearance~, argument began to focus on
Article 8 as a minimum gesture. This minimum gesture has now
been trimmed almost to insignificance.

      Amnesty International noted that as pressure for change
increased, prosecutors switched to alternative articles of
the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) in their prosecution of 
dissident writers, artists, journalists and human rights
activists. Aliza Marcus, a Reuters correspondent currently on
trial in Istanbul State Security Court for a news dispatch
issued by the news agency in November 1994, is one of a
growing number of people tried under Article 312 which covers
various forms of incitement. On 23 October Fevzi Gercek,
president of  a health workers' union, began a two year
sentence under Article 312 for an article in a minor
political journal.

ENDS\

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