>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 10:22:40 +0100 >From: "Press Agency Ozgurluk . Org" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Death sentences demanded for Turkish children >17 Feb 2000 >Agence France-Presse > > ISTANBUL, Feb 17 (AFP) - Prosecutors demanded the death penalty >for 68 children out of 221 who appeared before state security courts >in Diyarbakir last year, according to figures of the Turkish Justice >Ministry. > The figures were relayed by lawyer Arif Altunkalem, chairman of >the Commission for Children's Rights at the bar in Diyarbakir, >capital of Turkey's Kurdish-dominated south-east. > In the previous year, 169 minors appeared before courts dealing >with state security offences. > Speaking by telephone, Altunkalem said there were no juvenile >courts in the region, "therefore minors are systematically tried in >adult courts, even if this is not normal." > Under Turkish law, any person under 15 is defined as a minor and >the law stipulates he or she must be tried in a juvenile court. >Offenders aged over 15 are considered as responsible adults capable >of standing trial before ordinary courts. > The lawyer said that under a United Nations convention signed by >Turkey in 1990 and ratified in 1994, no minor under 18 can be tried >except in a juvenile court. > But Turkey has only six juvenile courts - two in Ankara, two in >Istanbul, one in Izmir in the west of the country and one in Trabzon >in the north. Under the law, no juvenile cases may be tried in adult >courts. > Altunkalem said that the type of crimes tried by State Security >Courts, including pro-Kurd "separatist propaganda" or working for >the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), explained the severity >of the sentences demanded by prosceutors. > Since a military regime emerged from an army coup in 1980, >Turkey has never sentenced a child to death and no death sentence >has been carried out since 1984. > The debate on the death penalty resumed after PKK leader Abdulla >Ocalan was sentenced to capital punishment on June 29 last, but the >death sentence was suspended by the government pending a ruling by >the European Court of Human Rights. > Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit gave a commitment to the European >Union to try to have the death penalty abolished in his country, >after Turkey's status as a candidate to the EU was formally accepted >at a EU summit in Helsinki in December. > The Ankara government also complied with another demand from the >European court by removing an armed forces judge from the trial team >of two other, civilian, judges. The Strasbourg court had declared >that the presence of an army man in the proceedings was not a >guarantee of their impartiality. > Altunkalem said he believed that the number of death sentences >meted out in Diyarbakir was "the highest in Turkey" because the >state security courts there were dealing with the highest number of >cases in the country. > South-eastern Turkey has been the scene of a guerrilla war by >the PKK for the for the past 15 years with the aim of setting up an >independent Kurdish state. > Seda Akco, president of the Children's Rights Commission on the >Istanbul bar, said there was little recourse for the families of >condemned children in face of violations of the UN convention on >children's rights. > She said that a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights >could result in the payment of indemnities, while the UN could only >issue condemnations of the attitude of the Turkish courts. > >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=".signature" > >Pressagency Ozgurluk.Org >In solidarity with the Peoples Liberationstruggle in Turkey and >Kurdistan http://www.ozgurluk.org >DHKP-C: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
