In December 1994, Leyla Zana, the 1995 Sakharov Price’s winner, and the three other deputies were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for “membership of an illegal group”. In July 2001, they were being granted a retrial after nine years of imprisonment following the European Court of Human Rights judgment that ruled a breach of the right to a fair trial, and the adoption of the second harmonisation package on 23rd January 2003 by the Turkish Parliament.
The FIDH who has observed several hearings of the retrial before the Ankara State Security Court (SCC), had denounced the continuing disregards of the principle of independence and impartiality of the court. The trial of the four Kurdish deputies falled short in providing sufficient guarantees with regards to the right to a fair trial (repeated delays in the trial, violation of the principle of equality of arms between the prosecution and the defence: for example, restrictions on the lawyers’ ability to question the witnesses were observed during the hearings).
The trial of the former Kurdish deputies is a further illustration of the human rights violations faced by the Kurdish people in Turkey. The FIDH recalls that Turkey cannot expect to initiate negotiations on EU accession as long as political prisoners are being detained and brought before courts and as long as the judicial system is not reformed in practice. While welcoming the significant and positive developments in Turkish legislation through the adoption of harmonization packages by the Parliament, FIDH stresses the need for Turkey abide by the Copenhagen criterias set out the European Commission for membership negociations to start
The FIDH is particularly concerned with the persistence of the States Security Courts system and recalls that the European Court of Human Rights (ECRTHR) has pointed out several times that these courts (eight in the country) fall short of presenting all the guarantees of a fair and impartial trial.
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