Turkey: justice delayed is justice denied

Abstract

REPORT□ TURKEY Turkey: justice delayed is justice denied Itis ofgreat importancethat international observers continueto look closelyto the contextand the procedures of these trials KLAUS LÖRCHER isaEuropean legal expert based in Frankfurt who attended the KESK trial in November 2009 and again at the most recent hearing on 22October 2010 Trade both (orfailing union thecivil to rights protect) and in criminal Turkey workers' law and rights, in the protecting role andas of boththecivilandcriminal lawinprotecting (orfailing toprotect) workers' rights, andas a toolofoppression against workers, havebeen key issues on the agenda of ICTUR in recent years.Overthesepages IUR looks at thelatest developments in two key cases coveringboth civil and criminal legal process.Firstly, Klaus Lörcherwriteson the Izmirtrialagainsttrade unionists: Further delay inIzmir trial against trade unionists unacceptable After a hearing of15minutes, the High Court inIzmir has forthefourth time adjourned - nowuntil 1 February 201 1-its decision in the caseconcerning 31 public sector unionists, including teacher andfemale unionists. Thecharges against thedefendants arethesame charges which were made shortly after their arrest in May 2009, which wasproviding 'intellectual support to illegal organisations'. Thedefendants aremembers of the Turkish Confederation ofPublic Employees' Trade Unions ('KESK') andits affiliate inthe education sector Egitim-Sen, andareeither Kurdish orhave links with the Kurdish community. Thebackground The trade unionists were arrested on28May 2009following months ofsurveillance ofindividual phones and emails. Their homes andworkplaces were searched andcomputers confiscated. Thearrests occurred ina very brutal way which caused psychological difficulties for family members, especially the children. If they are found guilty, eachdefendant could besentenced toup toten years imprisonment. The trial Since their arrest anddetention inMay 2009, the trial has already beenpostponed four times, on 22 November 2009,2 March, 22June andagain on22 October 2010.From the very beginning inNovember 2009the State Prosecutor relied mainly ondocuments andmaterials from a trial inDiyarbakir against 151 Kurdish politicians, lawyers, mayors, andleaders of Kurdish civil society organisations who were active for the Kurdish case. The Court therefore asked the Diyarbakir Court tosend (copies of) the file inorder tobeabletoexamine the pertinence of these documents. What is unbelievable is that these documents have never been sent totheIzmir Court. If, for nearly one year, a Court doesnot get the documents itneeds from another Court, thequestion arises as tothereasons behind it.Obviously, theanswer liesintheDiyarbakir trial itself. This trial hasbeen qualified byinternational observers as 'unfair', 'show trial', 'political trial' andit doesnot appear tobeout ofimagination that there isa link between the two trials. Therefore itisofgreat importance that international observers continue tolook closely tothecontext and theprocedures ofthese trials. Itwasinthis objective that anEducation International delegation attended the fourth hearing of this trial on22October 201 0which in the end only lasted 15minutes and wasadjourned until 1 February, when international observers again will be present. Theconsequences Besides alldifficult problems which arise from a position under charges such asharassment in employment, alldefendants arestill restricted intheright tofree movement in sofar asthey arebanned from leaving the country toattend for example international trade union meetings. All attempts by the lawyers of the defendants toget the ban ontravelling abroad lifted were rejected by the Court. Observingthe KESKtrial:the ICTURtrialobservers project The ICTURtrial observer's project was unableto securefunding tosenda lawyer totheKESKtrial on 22 October2010,possiblybecause we had warnedfunders thatwe expectedthatthehearingwouldlastjusta fewminutes. Unfortunately thismeansthatthestrategy - ifitis a strategy adoptedinthiscase ofconstantly adjourning the hearing, might yieldrewards ifitsucceedsinpreventinginternational observersfromattending. ForthisreasonICTURhas soughtin advanceto raisefunding toensurethat itwillbe abletosend a legal observer to thenextKESK trialdate in January. Fortunately we weresuccessful thistime andfunds havebeenprovided tothisendbythe Lipman-Miliband Trust. INTERNATIONAL union lights Page 22Volume 17Issue 4201 0 REPORT□ TURKEY Birlesik Metal celebrate the decision with a march atDudullu Organized Industrial Zone, finishing in front ofthe Sinter Metal company. (Birlesik Metal, 20101. The SinterMetal case A Turkey recent a barrister article oftrial who in observer IUR attended described Sarah a recent Hemingway, thevisit labour to Turkey oftrial observer SarahHemingway, a barrister who attendeda recentlabour court hearing on behalfofICTUR.In thatarticle, Hemingway wrotethat: "Justice isa slowprocessbutitwillseemmuch slower forthose whoarestruggling on the breadline awaitingtheir dayin court". Hemingway wrote: "The caseshad attracted international attention . .. However ; there wastobeno trial. .. the matter wasadjourned.... Thedefendant had failedagain tosecuretheattendance ofits mainwitnesses, onebeingthedaughter ofthe Company Director, OlgumTambeg. Itisnotevenclearwhy these witnesses are required togiveevidence: they can add little totheevidence thathasalreadybeenplaced on thecourt filebythe parties.Yet, the judge granted an adjournment until22 October 2010,on the...