Turkey: Novelist Ahmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and other journalists to be released
‘You can imprison me but you cannot keep me in prison’ Ahmet Altan.
Update - 12 November 2019
'Starting in July 2017 Ahmet Altan was put through proceedings marred by violations of his right to a fair trial. Then he was wrongfully detained for three gruelling years. Now he is being sent back to jail a mere eight days after being released. The latter is a despicable act: the facts together paint a dire picture of the Turkish authorities' unstoppable determination to persecute him. PEN International forcefully calls once again for his immediate and unconditional release.’
Jennifer Clement, President of PEN International
Update - 5 November 2019
‘Ahmet Altan gets to “see the world again” but he should have never been imprisoned in the first place. As the PEN community celebrates his release and rejoice at the sight of the novelist and co-defendant Nazlı Ilıcak walking free after three long years behind bars, we strongly condemn their politically motivated prosecutions and convictions. Their sentencing on baseless grounds is another stark reminder of Turkey’s broken justice system. We call on the Turkish authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those held solely for peacefully expressing their views and to end their relentless crackdown on free expression once and for all.'
Jennifer Clement, President of PEN International
Ahead of the second hearing in the retrial of Turkish novelist Ahmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and four other journalists and media workers, PEN International and 16 free speech and human rights organisations call for all detained defendants to be released and for the charges to be dropped. PEN believes that the charges against Altan and the other defendants are politically motivated and the case should never have gone to trial.
Altan and Ilıcak have been in pre-trial detention for over three years on bogus charges. They were initially charged with sedition and are now being re-tried on terrorism charges following a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeals. The final prosecutor’s opinion has been published ahead of the hearing on Monday 4 November, revealing that the prosecutor will ask for the judge to sentence significantly above the minimum required sentence for these offences. If the judge rules in line with the Prosecutor’s opinion, this will mean that the defendants will remain in detention during the appeals process which could take many more months. The on-going violation of their rights is a damning indictment of the state of Turkey’s judicial system, which has been placed under immense political pressure since the failed coup of July 2016.
We have serious concerns regarding the panel of judges overseeing this retrial. It will be presided over by the same judge who oversaw the first trial, which involved several violations of the right to a fair trial and according to the Bar Human Rights Committee, “gave the appearance of a show trial”. The same panel of judges also previously refused to implement the Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights rulings that Mehmet Altan’s rights had been violated by his pre-trial detention, sparking off a constitutional crisis.
With the Constitutional Court failing to find a violation in the case of Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak in May 2019, we look to the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) for justice. In 2018, the Court found several violations of Mehmet Altan’s rights. The Court also said that it would keep the effectiveness of remedies before the Constitutional Court under review. Altan and Ilıcak have now spent over three years in pre-trial detention. If the judge rules on Monday in line with the Prosecutor’s final opinion, they will be condemned to an even longer period of unjustified detention. By January 2020, their applications before the Strasbourg Court will have been pending for three years. A judgment from the European Court of Human Rights on their cases is now crucial.
Signatories
ARTICLE 19
Articolo 21
Danish PEN
English PEN
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
Freedom House
German PEN
Global Editors Network (GEN)
IFEX
Index on Censorship
Norwegian PEN
P24 – Platform for Independent Journalism
PEN America
PEN Canada
PEN International
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
Swedish PEN