WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2777/98 by Johanna MAIJ-WEGGEN to the Commission. Prison sentence imposed on Akin Birdal, chairman of IHD, the Turkish human rights organisation
Date: 1998-09-14
Institutions: European Parliament, MAIJ-WEGGEN
Subjects: Türkiye, democratisation, freedom of expression, human rights, imprisonment, the EU's international role

C 142/40

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.5.1999

As the Court has stated, (4) there is an exception to the principle of reimbursement of taxes, charges
7.
and duties levied in breach of Community law where it is established that the person required to pay such
charges has actually passed them on to other persons.

The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that with regard to the Italian authorities’
interpretation of Article 29 of law 428/90, the Court has been asked in the ‘Dilexport’ case (Case C-343/
96) which is currently pending, for a ruling as to whether a measure whereby a person requesting
repayment is presumed to have passed the tax on (unless he or she can prove the contrary) is compatible
with Community law. The Commission, for its part, has begun an infringement procedure under
Article 169 of the EC Treaty, considering that Article 29(2) and (7) of law 428/90, as interpreted by
the Italian authorities, is incompatible with Community rules on the recovery of undue payments.

(1)

Judgment of 15 September 1998, in Case C-231/96, Edilizia Industriale Siderurgica Srl (Edis) v Ministero delle
Finanze.

(2) OJ L 177, 1.7.1981.
(3) Cases C-192 to 218/95, (‘Comateb’), [1997] ECR I-165.
(4) See especially Case C-199/82, Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato v SpA San Giorgio, [1983] ECR 3595.

(1999/C 142/047)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2777/98

by Johanna Maij-Weggen (PPE) to the Commission

(14 September 1998)

Subject: Prison sentence imposed on Akin Birdal, chairman of IHD, the Turkish human rights organisa-

tion

Is the Commission aware that Akin Birdal, chairman of IHD, the Turkish human rights organisation, has
been sentenced to one year in prison for ‘inciting racial hatred’, although all he is guilty of doing is writing
an article on a peaceful solution to the war with the PKK, on campaigning against torture at police stations
and against the burning of Kurdish villages by the Turkish army?

Is the Commission prepared to ask the Turkish government for a clarification of this matter and to call for
the release of Akin Birdal?

Answer given by Mr van den Broek on behalf of the Commission

(15 October 1998)

The Commission is aware of the fact that Mr Akin Birdal was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison
early this year by a State security tribunal. Following the judgment, Mr Birdal appealed to the Court of
Appeal, and was not imprisoned. The Court of Appeal initially quashed the judgment. The case was sent
back to the tribunal, which upheld its initial sentence. Mr Birdal appealed a second time to the Court of
Appeal, and that case is currently pending. The Court’s decision will be final. At present Mr Birdal is in
France, for medical reasons.

The Commission stresses that improvement of the human rights situation in Turkey and continuing
democratisation are crucial to the development of relations. The Luxembourg European Council, held
in December 1997, reiterated that strengthening Turkey’s links with the European Union also depended on
that country’s pursuit of the political and economic reforms on which it had embarked, including the
alignment of human rights standards and practices on those in force in the European Union. Despite
Ankara’s decision to suspend all political dialogue with the EU, the Commission intends to continue to
inform its Turkish interlocutors of the EU’s views on such issues, including that raised by the Honourable
Member.