From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: upi.1.2.93 (fwd)
Date: 4 Jan 1993 22:40:41 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

> From VM.USC.EDU!LISTSERV Mon Jan  4 11:35:31 1993
> Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 13:59:26 -0500
> From: Tayfun Akin <tayfuna@engin.umich.edu>

        ANKARA, Turkey (UPI) -- When Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel was
 campaigning in last year's general elections as head of the opposition
 True Path Party, he promised legal reforms to improve Turkey's much-
 criticized human rights record.
        More than a year later, Demirel has something to show for it. After
 months of effort in the Grand National Assembly, Turkey's parliament, a
 legal reform package has been signed into law by President Turgut Ozal
 regulating detention procedures and the interrogation of suspects.
        In the meantime, Turkey's image abroad has not improved. If anything,
 it has come under stronger criticism after the murder of 12 journalists,
 mainly in the Kurdish-majority provinces in the southeast. And the new
 legislation itself has been criticized as too weak by human rights
 groups.
        The new law provides that:
        --Confessions obtained under the influence of drugs or through torture
 will not be accepted as legal evidence in a court of law.
        --A suspect will have the right to demand the presence of a lawyer at
 all phases of interrogation.
        --Suspects who are too poor to afford counsel will have lawyers
 assigned to them by the bar association, and a special fund will be set
 up to meet legal expenses.
        --A suspect who is not acquitted or sentenced within six months of
 arrest will be set free.
        --The jurisdiction of the special state security courts will be
 restricted to cases involving terrorism, arms smuggling and drug
 trafficking.
        The package also limits the period of detention of suspects, both for
 ordinary crimes and for those that fall within the jurisdiction of the
 state security courts.
        It was this provision that caused much of the controversy during the
 bill's rocky path through the Grand National Assembly.
        President Ozal had previously rejected the legislation because the
 period for which suspects could be held without trial was the same for
 those charged with terrorism as for those held for ordinary crimes. He
 said longer maximum detention periods were needed for alleged terrorists
 or those picked up in areas where emergency laws are in force.
        Demirel faced the same issue within the right-wing branch of his own
 party, which now leads the governing coalition. The rightists shared
 Ozal's objections.
        Under the amended legislation, passed by the assembly in November,
 the ordinary criminal may be detained for 24 hours without trial, with
 the detention being extendable up to eight days in some cases. Those
 held under state security laws may be held without trial for 48 hours,
 with the period extendable to 15 days.
        Emergency laws now govern Turkey's southeastern provinces, where a
 leftist Kurdish rebellion has been building over the past year. The bulk
 of torture allegations made by human rights groups abroad have focused
 on that region.
        The law also does not guarantee a defendant's right to counsel in
 state security cases or those involving the emergency laws.
        Legal experts and human rights activists criticize the reform package
 for not going far enough to amend the nation's Criminal Trial Procedure
 Law. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation said the legislation does not
 quite meet the fair trials standards of the European Human Rights
 Charter.
        The experts, some of whom requested anonymity, believe the loopholes
 that remain will not dim persistent allegations that Turkish police are
 torturing prisoners during detention.
        Erdal Merdol, the chairman of the Turkish Bar Association, pointed
 out that the provisions differentiating between two types of detainees
 violates the principle of equality.
        The legal experts, however, do see as a step forward a clause that
 limits the jurisdiction of the state security court to offenses
 involving terrorism, arms smuggling and drug trafficking.
        Under the old law, people arrested for illegal demonstrations,
 strikes and lockouts were also liable to be tried in state security
 courts. But many experts criticize a portion of the bill that limits the
 instances in which a suspect may demand the presence of a lawyer during
 interrogation.
        Suspects liable to be tried in state security courts are not granted
 this right, nor are those detained in areas where emergency laws are in
 force.
        Since the bulk of torture allegations in Turkey involve suspects held
 in these two categories, many experts say the reform package remains
 wide open to the criticism that it is just window dressing, and makes no
 real progress toward improving Turkey's human rights record.