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Human Rights Activist Ridvan KizginAus DTF Update On 23 July 2010 Rıdvan Kızgın died in the hospital of Dicle University, where he was under treatment for cancer. He had been released from prison on 3 March 2009, but at the door of his room in hospital police teams were waiting in order to arrest him, should he be sent home. The order stemmed from another trial in which Rıdvan Kızgın had been sentenced to seven years, six months' imprisonment. On 5 November 2008 the DTF was informed that Ridvan Kizgin was transferred (against his will) from Bingöl Prison to Erzurum H-Type Prison. His family and lawyer suspects that the transfer is a punishment for frequent complaints about prison conditions. His daughter Rojda visited him in Erzurum and expressed deep concern about his right to life. On 3 March 2008 Ridvan Kizgin), former chair of the Bingöl branch of the Human Rights Association (HRA) was taken to Bingöl Prison to serve a sentence of 2 years and 6 months' imprisonment (see case 2). This may only be the start for a lengthy time in prison. According to an article in the Internet Portal "AjansDogu" of 8 March 2008 a total 107 investigations had been launched against him and 67 had ended in court cases. While some charges had been dropped or resulted in acquittal, others ended in convictions. In some of these cases Ridvan Kizgin was fined in others he was punished with imprisonment.
Samples cases against Ridvan KizginRidvan Kizgin has been targeted by the authorities since the foundation of a branch of the HRA in Bingöl province. In December 2001 Bingöl Governor Tamer Ersoy dismissed him as the chair of the branch, but in January 2002 realized that he was not entitled to do so. He stayed in pre-trial detention between 25 January and 8 March 2002 in connection with a press statement on the "disappearance" of two politicians in Silopi in January 2001. Further examples of the various cases against Ridvan Kizgin can be found in the daily bulletins of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT, download a collection of English reports as word-file). In a report of October 2005 (word-document in Turkish, 700 kB) the Bingöl branch of the HRA listed 86 cases against Ridvan Kizgin between 2001 and July 2005. In connection with the activities of the Bingöl branch a total of 209 cases had been launched. The cases that had resulted in conviction were listed as
The background to these cases were alleged violations of the Law on Association such as not providing required documents, accepting members with a criminal record or showing missing board members in minutes of meetings. The report also listed a trial in Elazig, where Ridvan Kizgin had been fined 1,112,000 TL for having used the Kurdish word "Cewlik" for Bingöl province in the multi-language letter head (also in English). This case is referred to in a report of Amnesty International of 1 March 2006. In a report of FIDH of 18 March 2008 two convictions of Ridvan Kizgin that are pending before the Appeal Court are listed as:
Events leading to current imprisonmentIn mid-2003 the situation in Bingöl province was rather tense and the HRA felt obliged to comment on various kinds of atrocities including acts of killings that officially were attributed to the Kurdish Workers' Party PKK (at the time also operating under the name of KADEK), but for which KADEK had denied to be responsible. The chronology of incidents (as far as they are relevant to the subsequent proceedings against Ridvan Kizgin) includes
The "massacre" in Pul hamletIn the evening of 10 July 2003 four (or six) armed men came to Pul hamlet. Two of them knifed and stoned Mahmut Kaya (26). He was found the next morning. Still being alive he was taken to hospital, where he died two days later. After the attack on Mahmut Kaya the two armed men joined another two armed men on their way to the hamlet and took Ahmet Acar (52), his son Erdal Acar (28) and Giyasettin (Hüseyin) Özmen (56) from their homes. Haci Kaya (54) believed that he could persuade the aggressors not to kill the villagers and followed them. Shots were heard soon afterwards, but only in the morning the villagers found all four men being shot dead. There are conflicting reports on the incident. Press reports on 12 July differ on several aspects. The semi-official news agency AA said that the attackers identified themselves as "village guards", the agency of Hürriyet (DHA) called them "terrorists", while the pro-Kurdish agency MHA carried arguments that agents of the state killed the villagers. On 11 July the gendarmerie (command in Bingöl) carried out an inspection. Without citing any witness the gendarmerie's report described the incident as "6 members of the terror organization PKK-KADEK came to the village on 10 July at 7.30pm and said that Mahmut Kaya, Hüseyin Özmen, Ahmet Acar and Erdal Acar were responsible for the death of their 'friends' on 15 June. Mahmut Kaya was taken to a riverbed by two members of the organization. These two later joined the other four and took Hüseyin Özmen, Ahmet Acar and Erdal Acar away. Haci Kaya followed them...The seriously wounded Mahmut Kaya had been taken to Genc State Hospital (from here to the hospital of the university in Elazig). The other four victims were found covered with twigs lying on their backs." Two of them had been shot from the front (one bullet each entered at the left eye or eyebrow). The other two men had been shot from behind. One had a bullet entry on the right side of his head (exit on the front) and Haci Kaya had been shot four times to his chest and his neck. The gendarmerie found five bullet casings of Kalashnikov rifles and took them as evidence. The HRA report of 29 July said that on 10 July at 8pm four armed people came to Mahmut Kaya working in the field. They had Kalashnikovs and wore guerrilla clothing. They introduced themselves as village guards. One week after the incident an army knife with blood was found. The villagers washed it and took it up. With no conclusive answer on who the attackers were the HRA said, “The HRA is opposed to this kind of action, whoever conducted this terrible action. The State is obliged to find the assailants and bring them to justice”. In the interview Ridvan Kizgin gave to MED (Medya) TV on 14 July 2003 he referred to complaints from citizens who spoke of six armed men in the region unknown to them. The result of talks to the citizens showed that they thought that the KADEK did not carry out the attack (on Pul hamlet). He himself had a powerful notion (güclü kanaat) to this effect. The investigations against Ridvan KizginCase 1:Following the attack in Pul hamlet and the statements and comments of Ridvan Kizgin on it several investigations were launched. In one case he and Ali Kalkan, commander of the gendarmerie in Bingöl, were the suspects. On 31 December 2003 prosecutor Mehmet Safak decided not to bring charges against them (Ridvan Kizgin had been suspected of having insulted the army Ali Kalkan had been accused with threats against Ridvan Kizgin. As part of this investigation Ridvan Kizgin testified to the prosecutor Mehmet Safak (who later dropped the charges) on 6 August 2003. He said inter alias: "I have no clear information of whether or not the six people that I referred to in my speech (on TV) are members of KADEK… It is certainly not possible to draw the conclusion from my speech that they are from the security forces or village guards. I wanted to say that 6 people were strolling around in the region in a dangerous way and that measures should be taken…" Ridvan Kizgin also provided two phone numbers. One number had been given to him during the threatening calls as the number that he could call back and the other one had appeared on the display of his mobile phone. During the investigation it was established that both numbers belonged to the gendarmerie in Bingöl, but the register of Turkish Telekom did not show local calls on 8 or 9 July from these numbers (therefore the charges against the commander Ali Kalkan were dropped). Case 2:On 7 August 2003 Ridvan Kizgin testified to the prosecutor Hasan Onur Dinc, who conducted the investigation into the case on "hiding evidence", which eventually resulted in the prison term that Ridvan Kizgin started to serve on 3 March 2008. Ridvan Kizgin denied the charges of having taken a knife, a bloody stick or other material that could have been evidence to the murder of the five villagers. Until 12 December 2003 Hasan Onur Dinc took statements of several people. Unlike the minutes of the testimony to the prosecutor Mehmet Safak these statements are of bad quality with spelling mistakes, jumping letters and vital dates missing. For instance, one undated statement of the villager Filit Acar presented his "story" that he had found the knife and had given it to Ridvan Kizgin without a date. On 31 October 2003 Filit Acar was interrogated (this time as a suspect to become the co-defendant of Ridvan Kizgin) and he repeated that he had found the knife and given it to Ridvan Kizgin (again no date specified), but had no knowledge about the stick and the bullet casings. Over a month after the incident, on 20 August 2003, Ahmet Kasimoglu, a 59-year old man from the hamlet, living in Diyarbakir, came to the prosecutor's office in Bingöl. He handed over a knife, two bullet casings and a stick claiming that Ridvan Kizgin had given him the knife and the bullet casings from a strongbox in the office of the HRA in Bingöl the day before. The stick he claimed to have taken from unnamed people in the hamlet. Yet, the police had searched the premises of the HRA in Bingöl on 9 August 2003 and neither a strongbox nor a knife or bullet casings had been found. On 12 February 2004 Bingöl Penal Court No. 2 started to hear the case of Ridvan Kizgin and Filit Acar. During the hearing Filit Acar changed his "story" and said that he and Seyhmuz Özmen had found the knife. Seyhmuz Özmen had taken it home and washed it. During the visit of the HRA delegation Ridvan Kizgin had asked for the knife and someone had brought it from the home of Seyhmuz Özmen. Despite this testimony Seyhmuz Özmen was not charged. He testified in court as a witness on 6 April 2004 and confirmed the testimony of Filit Acar adding that Abdurrahman Kaya had taken the knife from his home and given it to Ridvan Kizgin. Abdurrahman Kaya testified to the same effect. The main witness for the prosecution, Ahmet Kasimoglu, who could also have become a defendant, because the "hidden" evidence was in his possession for some time, was never heard in court. Therefore, the defence had no chance of questioning him. The testimony of Ahmet Kasimoglu was taken by another court. On 21 May 2004 Ridvan Kizgin presented a written "defence" of 4.5 pages to the court. He alleged that certain expressions had been added to the testimony prosecutor Hasan Onur Dince had taken on 28 August 2003. He had said that "a knife was shown to us" and "was given back", but in adding "given to us and I took the tools to the centre of Bingöl province" the impression was created that he had taken the things to Bingöl before giving them back. Ridvan Kizgin added that on 14 August 2003 the prosecutor's office had written to the gendarmerie and stated that the knife and the stick were still in possession of the people in the village. The Court established that the bullet casings allegedly taken from the office of the HRA in Bingöl had been shot from the same gun as the five bullet casings that had been found on 11 July 2003. This meant that the two bullet casings were no additional evidence. The knife on the other hand had been washed and Bingöl Penal Court did not point at any other characteristics of the knife that could have qualified it as "vital evidence". On this basis Bingöl Penal Court No 2 convicted Ridvan Kizgin for "hiding evidence" and sentenced him to 2.5 years' imprisonment on 7 October 2005 . The court acquitted Filit Acar ruling that he had no intention to conceal evidence. Rather than commenting on conflicting statements of witnesses and assessing their liability the verdict repeatedly quoted statements of Ridvan Kizgin that allegedly showed his intention of whitewashing the PKK and blaming the security forces. The verdict also mentioned dubious documents allegedly written by unidentified militants of the PKK said to have been found in hiding places almost two years after the incident. In these notes the unknown authors criticized themselves for the killings. One of the "authors" claimed to have agreed with Ridvan Kizgin to blame the security forces for the act. Bingöl Penal Court No. 2 admitted that these dubious documents could not be used as evidence, but nevertheless referred to them as additional "hints" to the "guilt" of Ridvan Kizgin. Case 3:Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 4 (the court that replaced Diyarbakir State Security Court No. 1) reached a completely different conclusion. Its verdict of 13 October 2006 almost entirely relied on the dubious documents. Ridvan Kizgin and his co-defendant Nurettin Celik were both sentenced to five years' imprisonment for aiding and abetting (militants of the PKK). Several things are peculiar with the notes attributed to PKK militants. Not all have a date and some have no (code) name of an author. The dates on some notes vary between 28 May and 15 August 2004 (well after the incident). Some are addressed to the "investigation commission" (in one case of "Amed County"), others are addressed to the "disciplinary board". The background the gendarmerie presented to these notes is that on 2 April 2005 a group of PKK militants attacked a military unit in Dikpinar village and injured 5 soldiers. During subsequent searches five hiding places but no militant of the PKK were discovered and the notes (and other things found there) were confiscated. Only one of the "authors" was reportedly known by his complete identity and there was no possibility to compare the handwriting to the handwriting of real persons. On the incident in Pul hamlet some "authors" said that there was no concrete information on who in the hamlet was responsible for the ambush in which two "fighters" were killed on 15 June. Others said that three names had been mentioned (Erdal Acar and his father, plus Giyasettin Özmen). Only in one place the minibus driver (Nurettin Celik) was mentioned as the person that provided the information on the villagers who informed the gendarmerie and only one person accused Ridvan Kizgin of having communicated with him (this note is much shorter than the others). As in many other (political) court cases the outcome of this trial was influenced by a note of the gendarmerie, signed by Major Necip Carikcioglu. The note is supposed to be the summary of the investigation of the gendarmerie concerning a) the militants, who allegedly wrote the notes and therefore, appeared to have participated in the attack on Pul hamlet b) Ridvan Kizgin on charges of supporting the PKK and slander the army and c) Nurettin Celik on supporting the PKK. For the charges against Ridvan Kizgin the note atributed to a person with the code name Andok-Amed was quoted. Afterwards the statement of the Bingöl branch of the HRA of 4 January 2004 was quoted and it was said "while Ridvan Kizgin termed the killings 'unresolved killings' he created the impression that the security forces were responsible". He did so "although he knew that terrorists had committed the act". Ridvan Kizgin was accused of having met the PKK militant on 17 July and having given him a mobile phone and phone card. On 16 January 2006 Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court started to hear the case. On 16 March 2006 both defendants testified. Ridvan Kizgin described the events before the incident in Pul hamlet and argued that if the report on the killings had been biased then a court case should have been initiated against all five members of the delegation and not only him. On 28 September 2006 the defence handed over a 3-page pleading on the case. The lawyers stressed that Ridvan Kizgin had been under personal protection from police officers (in town) and soldiers of the gendarmerie (outside town) between 15 July and 20 October 2003 so that it had been impossible for him to meet a PKK militant without the security officers noticing it. The notes had been found almost two years after the incident which made it all the more likely that they had been manipulated. The reasoned verdict (of 13 October 2006) was delivered to the lawyers on 20 November 2006. Under the heading of "Evaluation of evidence and reasons" the notes of the militants were summarized without the slightest doubt about their origin. According to the verdict "the confiscated documents corresponded to each other" and, therefore, "the defendants' denial of the charges was dismissed". The sentence was not determined at the lowest level (3 years' imprisonment) but at 4 years' imprisonment. This sentence was increased by one half according to the Law against Terrorism and reduced for good conduct by 1/6 to be 5 years' imprisonment. On 23 November 2006 the lawyers appealed against the verdict. On 1 April 2008 the chief prosecutor at the Court of Cassation asked to confirm the verdict of Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 4. Assessment of the convictionsAn expert of the German support group of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), the Democratic Turkey Forum (DTF) has made an intense study of the court files and relating documents. The summary of the cases are a result of the study. His conclusions can be summarized like this: Since the beginning the authorities have tried to hinder the work of the Bingöl branch of the HRA. In the beginning legal action focused on formalities (violation of the Law on Associations). Investigations were launched into almost all statements issued by the branch and its chairperson Ridvan Kizgin. When the authorities discovered that press statement could not be termed "illegal distribution of leaflets" the charges changed to "insult and denigration of the security forces", but only in very few cases the relevant courts would pass a guilty verdict. Therefore, additional (criminal) charges were presented. In connection with the events of July 2003 the authorities were particularly disturbed that Ridvan Kizgin accused the security forces with intimidation and that he refused to blame the PKK for the killing of five civilians on 10 July 2003. Among the subsequent cases Short CV of Ridvan KizginRidvan Kizgin was born in Lice district (Diyarbakir) in 1953. The family later moved to Solhan district (Bingöl province) where Ridvan Kizgin finished primary education. In 1971 he graduated at Mus Agricultural Lyceum and started to work as a technician. He got married in 1973. After the military coup of 12 September 1980 he was taken into custody. Traces of the torture can still be seen at his feet. In 1982 Kizgin stayed in detention for 45 days, but there was not enough evidence to put him in pre-trial custody. After another detention in 1983 Ridvan Kizgin was suspended from duty. Having lost his status as civil servant he engaged in politics and became active for the social-democratic party SODEP that later merged with the SHP. He later left the party and while he participated in the founding effort of the pro-Kurdish People's Labour Party (HEP) he won his case at the Supreme Administrative Court and could return to his job as an agricultural technician. He was appointed to Aksaray. In 1999 he asked to be transferred to his "home twon" Bingöl, but worked there only for a short time. In 2000 he asked for retirement. After retirement he engaged in human rights work. He did not only chair the Bingöl branch of the HRA, but also became a member of the general board of the HRA HQ in Ankara. More pictures
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