Turkey: another human rights activist placed under arrest

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.etext.org>
Subject: Turkey: Another Human Rights Activist Arrested

Yagmurdereli Placed Under Arrest By Police

Turkish Daily News - October, 21 1997

     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.

(Source: Press Agency Ozgurluk, http://www.ozgurluk.org)