Four years on, Muharrem Erbey still in pre-trial detention

Paris-Geneva,January 10, 2014 - Four years after Muharrem Erbey's arrest, FIDH and OMCT,within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders,the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA - International Association ofLawyers), the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), the Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği - İHD) and the HumanRights Foundation of Turkey (Türkiye İnsan HaklarıVakfı - TİHV) remain gravely concerned about the prominenthuman rights lawyer's continued arbitrary detention and the continuousharassment targeting human rights defenders in the country.

On January 13 2014, thetrial against human rights lawyer, Vice President of the İHD, former Presidentof the İHD's branch office in Diyarbakır and recipientof the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize for 2012 Muharrem Erbey will resume. Mr.Erbey has been suffering judicial harassment and protracted pre-trial detentionfor more than four years and is being prosecuted with 152 other Kurdishfigures.

On December 24, 2009, Mr.Muharrem Erbey was arrested by the Anti-Terror Unit of the Diyarbakır SecurityDirectorate as part of an operation launched simultaneously in 11 provinces inTurkey. His arrest and detention were based on his alleged membership to theKurdish Communities Union (KCK), an organization said to be the “urban branch”of the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Consequently,he was charged with “being a member of anillegal organisation”, pursuant to Article 314 of the Turkish Criminal Code.Mr. Erbey is facing a minimum sentence of 7,5 to 15 years in prison should he befound guilty.

Minutes taken during Mr. Erbey's interrogation on December 25, 2009 bythe prosecution clearly show that the real reasons for his arrest were linkedto his legitimate human rights work. According to Mr. Erbey's lawyers, thecharges were mainly based on his participation in a workshop in Diyarbakır inSeptember 2009 on constitutional amendments aimed at ensuring a greater respectfor minorities' rights, his speeches on Kurdish rights made before parliamentsin Belgium, Sweden and the UK, and his attendance to the “Kurdish FilmFestival” in Italy in 2009. Additionally, lawyers representing Mr. Erbey were only given access to the criminal file six monthsafter his arrest, in clear breach ofhis defence rights, as recognised under international law.

Since 2009, over 8,000people have been arrested in the context of the KCK investigations - masscounter-terrorism operations that in fact have little to do with counteringterrorism, but rather have been used as a means of criminalising peacefuldissent and Kurdish political and cultural expression. Similar investigationshave targeted human rights defenders based on their alleged membership in otherterrorist groups such as the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front(DHKP-C)[1].In this context, dozens of human rights defenders, including İHD members andexecutives, have been subjected to judicial harassment for trumped-up andabusive terrorism charges in Turkey. The situation of Mr. Erbey is particularlyserious due to the length of his pre-trial detention, which also contravenesinternational fair trial standards.

Ourorganisations firmly denounce the protracted and unjustified detention of Mr. Erbey in the last fouryears. They arealarmed by the Turkish authorities' blatant disrespect for Mr. Erbey'sfundamental right to a fair trial within a reasonable time and to defence, andhis legitimate right to promote and defend human rights, including byparticipating in activities aimed at promoting those rights in the publicsphere and taking up their defence in the context of his professional activity.

Ourorganisations urge the Turkish authorities to immediately and unconditionallyrelease Mr.Erbey since charges pending against him seem to merely aim at sanctioning hishuman rights activities, to guarantee Mr. Erbey's right to a fair trial and torefrain from further harassing human rights defenders, including members ofIHD.

Moregenerally, our organisations reiterate their call to the Turkish authorities toput an end to the ongoing repressive climate targeting human rights defendersand organisations in the country, in line with the United Nations Declaration on Human RightsDefenders, the Universal Declaration of HumanRights and international and European human rights instruments ratified byTurkey.

For more information,please contact:

• FIDH: Audrey Couprie / Arthur Manet: +33 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT: Delphine Reculeau: +41 22 809 49 39
• UIA: Marie-Pierre Lienard: +33 1 44 88 55 66
• EMHRN: Hayet Zeghiche : +32 488080041
• İHD: Osman İşçi: + 90 530 233 41 15

[1] See Observatory's Press Release,January 28, 2013.