Provisional release of Mr. Raci Bilici, IHD Vice-President

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URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

New information

TUR 001 / 0317 / OBS 026.1

Provisionalrelease / Judicial harassment
Turkey
March 24, 2017

The Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation AgainstTorture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgentintervention in the following situation in Turkey.

New information:

TheObservatory has been informed by reliable sources about the provisional releaseof Mr. Raci Bilici, Vice-Presidentof the Human Rights Association (IHD) and Chairperson of IHD Diyarbakır.

Accordingto the information received, on March 21, 2017, Mr. Raci Bilici wasinterrogated by the Public Prosecutor in the morning, before being heard by theCriminal Peace Judge on Duty in Diyarbakır in the afternoon. The court decidedto release Mr. Raci Bilici on condition of judicial control. As a consequence,Mr. Raci Bilici is subjected to a travel ban and must check once a week atDiyarbakır’s police station.

The PublicProsecutor announced that he would pursue an investigation under theAnti-Terrorism Law (Law 3713 of April 1991) for Mr. Bilici’s alleged “relationswith the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)” punished by Article 314 of the PenalCode and submit an indictment to the court. The exact reasons for the chargesremain unclear as the content of the case file remains confidential includingfor his lawyer pursuant to the Article 153.2 of the Turkish Criminal CodeProcedure (No. 5271).

TheObservatory recalls in particular that the Anti-Terrorism Law has beenrepeatedly used by the authorities as a tool to harass and imprison humanrights defenders.

Mr. Raci Bilici’s arrest took place against thebackground of an increased repression against those who have expressed criticalviews of the current administration, including human rights defenders,following the July 15, 2016, failed coup, and in a particularly tense politicalclimate, ahead of the constitutional referendum set to take place on April 16,2017.

The Observatory fears that IHD’s monitoring of humanrights violations triggered the arrest of Mr. Raci Balici. Indeed, IHD hadrecently provided information for a report by the Office of the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) exposing human rights violations inSouth-East Turkey in relation to security operations conducted by the Turkishauthorities between July 2015 and December 2016. IHD’s inputs have beencrucial, since the OHCHR had been refused access by the Turkish authorities tothe South-East region to investigate into allegations of massive destructions,killings and other serious human rights violations[1].

The Observatorywelcomes the provisional release of Mr. Raci Bilici but condemns the harassment, including at the judiciallevel, targeting him and which only aims at sanctioning to his peaceful andlegitimate human rights activities. Accordingly, the Observatory callsupon the Turkish judicial authorities to end all forms of harassment against Mr. Raci Bilici and to lift the travelban in force against him.

Background information:

On March15, 2017 at 6:00 am, Mr. Raci Bilici was arrested at his house by five policemen and brought to the Diyarbakır Provincial Security Directorate Anti-TerrorBureau. No reason was provided regardinghis arrest.

Mr. Raci Bilici was amongst the 4,350 teachers whowere suspended from duty in Turkey’s South-Eastern Diyarbakır province onSeptember 8, 2016, under Decree Law No. 677. The Ministry of National Educationalleged that these teachers “joined activities to prevent domestic operationsagainst terrorist organisations from being successful, failed curfews declaredin several districts and cities and violated the right to education”

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities in Turkey,urging them to:

i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physicaland psychological integrity of Mr. RaciBilici as well as of all human rightsdefenders in Turkey;

ii. Put an end to all forms of harassment,including at judicial level, against Mr.Raci Bilici, as well as all human rights defenders in Turkey;

iii. Lift the travel ban in force against Mr. Raci Bilici;

iv. Comply with all the provisions of the UnitedNations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular with its Article1, 6(a), 9, 11 and 12.2;

v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for humanrights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rightsstandards and international instruments ratified by Turkey.

Addresses:

· President of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Fax: (+90 312) 52558 31, E-mail: contact@tccb.gov.tr

· Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr. Binali Yıldırım; Fax: +90 (312) 403 62 82

· Minister of Justice, Mr. BekirBozdağ, Fax: +90 (0312) 419 33 70; E-mail: info@adalet.gov.tr

· Minister of Interior, Mr. SüleymanSoylu; Fax: +90 (312) 425 61 30;Email: ozelkalem@icisleri.gov.tr

· Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr.Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Twitter account: @MFATurkey

· Ambassador Izzet Selim Yenel,Diplomatic Mission of Turkey to the European Union in Brussels, Fax: + 32 2 51104 50, Email: tr-delegation.eu@mfa.gov.tr

· H.E. Ambassador Mr. Ali Naci Koru,Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations in Geneva, Fax: +41 22 734 0859; Email: mission.turkey@ties.itu.int

Pleasealso write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of Turkey in your respectivecountry.

***

Paris-Geneva,March 24, 2017

Kindly inform usof any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatoryfor the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective ofthis programme is to intervene to prevent or remedy situations of repressionagainst human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu , the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanismimplemented by international civil society.

To contact theObservatory, call the emergency line:

E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org

Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

[1] See Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for HumanRights, Report on the human rights situation in South-East Turkey, February2017 available at:http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/TR/OHCHR_South-East_TurkeyReport_10March2017.pdf.