Turkey: another human rights activist placed under arrest

Tue Oct 21 05:45:10 BST 1997

Oct.21 1997

Yagmurdereli placed under arrest by police

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Turkish Daily News

Istanbul - Lawyer, writer and human rights defender Esber Yagmurdereli
told the press, "I will not surrender, let the police come and take
me," just after the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's
sentencing. He was arrested by police following his appearance on the
television show "Teke Tek" Sunday night and taken to Gayrettepe Police
Headquarters.

Monday Yagmurdereli appeared before the Istanbul State Security Court;
however, the necessary legal formalities had not been carried out so
he was sent instead to the Kadikoy Justice Court. There it proved
impossible to find essential documents related to his being put in
prison to serve a 23-year sentence imposed on him. The Kadikoy
Prosecutor has since applied to Samsun where the decision to imprison
Yagmurdereli was originally taken. In the meantime the latter will
stay at the Public Security Branch Directorate in Gayrettepe,
Istanbul.

The original sentence, 36 years, was handed down by the Samsun Serious
Crimes Court where he had stood trial for "trying to change the
constitutional order at the point of a gun." In 1986 that sentence was
upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals and he served 13.5 years before
being given a conditional release on August 1, 1991.

Subsequently Yagmurdereli was sentenced to 10 months in prison because
of a speech he made in Sisli's Abide-i Hurriyet Square which was
judged to be separatist. He is expected to have to serve the ten-month
sentence as well as the remaining 22.5 years of the previous sentence
for having violated the terms of his conditional pardon.

Yagmurdereli has made it clear in an interview with the TDN that he
does not wish to benefit from any special pardon since he would rather
that the entire problem of people being sentenced for crimes of
thought were eliminated; if his imprisonment would help that process,
he was more than willing to go to prison.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
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