07-09 July 2012 Daily Human Rights Report
(07/064) Operations and clashes in South-east…
On 8 July 2012 a soldier was killed and another one was wounded in the operations initiated after HPGPeople's Defence Forces (armed wing of the PKK) militants burned down 5 trucks on the road between Tunceli and Erzincan Provinces on 7 July 2012.
Seven soldiers were wounded in the clash between Turkish Armed Forces and Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKKKurdish Workers' Party ) armed wing People’s Defence Forces (HPG) in the rural part of Hanelmalı Village of Tatvan District of Bitlis Province on 7 July 2012.
Two temporary village guards and a militant were killed and a soldier and a militant were wounded in the clash in Bahçesaray District of Van Province on 6 July 2012.
Three militants were killed in the clash in the rural part of Doğubayazıt District of Ağrı Province on 8 July 2012.
(07/065) Fire in refugee camp…
Tw citizens of Syria died andeight others were wounded in the fire in the refugee camp in Yayladağ District of Hatay Province on 6 July 2012.
(07/066) Death in prison…
Kasım Demir (56) a prisoner in Diyarbakır D Type Closed Prison with chronic heart disease, hypertension, articular rheumatism and hepatitis B, died in the hospital in (İzmir) Training and Research Hospital on 6 July 2012.
(07/067) Death in prison…
E.K. (24) who had allegedly jumped out of the window from the third floor in Sivas Open Prison on 1 July 2012 died in the hospital on 8 July 2012.
(07/068) Excessive use of force by law enforcement officers…
Seven people -Ferhat Şen, Şaban Emre, Ekin Şen, Selim Candemir, Sinan Emre, Azmi Azat Şen and Abdullah Sevgi- who had been returning their homes were stopped by law-enforcement and beaten in Van Province on 8 July 2012.
(07/069) Excessive use of force by municipal police…
Municipal police confiscate the sales booth of İlhan Aluç, the peddler, and beat him in Ereğli District of Zonguldak Province on 7 July 2012.
(07/070) Coercion in prison...
Lawyers Mazlum Dinç, Rezan Sarıca, and Hüseyin Boğatekin were not allowed to visit their client Abdullah Öcalan on 6 July 2012 on grounds that the ship that would carry them to İmralı Island was out of order.
(07/071) Coercion in prison...
Staff Colonel Levent Kerim Uça who has been a pre-trial detainee in Maltepe Army Prison in the framework of the “Sledgehammer Action Plan Investigation” since 22 August 2011, had an operation on 2 February 2012 for the removal of the tumour from his brain. He should stay in the hospital for 3 months but he transferred to the prison 2 weeks after the operation, reported on 8 March 2012.
Levent Kerim Uça has to use medication for epilepsy due to the side-effects of the operation and is under the risk having a crisis anytime. He also faces with the risk of losing his sight unless he does not have a proper medical treatment.
(07/072) Coercion in prison...
Oğuz Topal who had been arrested and sent to Metris T Type Closed Prison in connection with the incidents in the Labour Day in Şişli District of İstanbul Province on 1 May 2012, had dislocation in his right wrist on 7 March 2012. Oğuz Topal should have a medical operation otherwise he would face with impairment reported on 8 July 2012.
(07/073) Ongoing case on prison operations …
On 6 July 2012 Üsküdar Heavy Penal Court No. 1 went on hearing the case against 399 pre-trial detainees and convicts who had been in Ümraniye (İstanbul) Prison in connection with the “Back to Life Operation” in which 32 people were killed in 20 prisons on 19 December 2000 on charges of “rioting against the administration of the prison”, “having explosives” and “wounding”. Seven prisoners had been killed during the operation in Ümraniye Prison that day.
The court adjudicated issue warrant of apprehension for the defendants who did not make legal arguments and adjourned the hearing to 19 November 2012.
(07/074) Coercion in prison...
Seven political prisoners -Ahmet Özkan, Mehmet Sait Dikmen, Cemal Çalışır, Ömer Çakır, Emin Menteş, Çetin Sağır and Ali Çat- were sent from İskenderun (Hatay) M Type Closed Prison to Alanya (Antalya) L Type Closed Prison against their will reported on 6 July 2012.
(07/075) Coercion in prison...
Şeyhmuz Güner a pre-trial detainee in Kürkçüler (Adana) F Type Closed Prison was sentenced to ban of communication on the grounds that there was a hole in the wall of his cell reported on 6 July 2012.
(07/076) The Case on the massacre of Bilge (Kertê) Village…
On 16 February 2012 the Supreme Court of Appeals had ratified most of the sentences handed out by a local court in the case of the Bilge village massacre that took place in the south-eastern province of Mardin in 2009.
The appeals court approved the decision to sentence Mehmet Çelebi, the principal case suspect, to aggravated life imprisonment in connection with the murders of 43 people but overturned the ruling in the case of one victim.
The court decided to defer the ruling against Mehmet Çelebi in the case of his victim Fesih Çelebi and wait for the forensics report, as the suspect claimed there was an affair between his wife and the victim. Mehmet Çelebi also alleged their children were born of that affair and requested a DNA test, according to reports.
The court approved the ruling to sentence four other suspects to aggravated life imprisonment 44 times, as well as the decision to acquit four other suspects, according to reports.
A criminal court in the central province of Çorum had ruled to sentence Mehmet Çelebi to aggravated life imprisonment 44 times along with four other suspects. The court had also sentenced 14-year-old suspect M.Ş.Ç. to 15 years of imprisonment 44 times, suspect A.Ç. to 15 years, and suspect M.Ç., who was tried without arrest on claims of shooting in the air, to six months in prison.
The hearing of the appeals court was also held in Çorum due to security reasons, according to reports.
Bilge village made the headlines in Turkey after assailants raided the former village head’s home during his daughter’s engagement ceremony in the south-eastern province of Mardin on May 4, 2009, killing 44 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman. The assailants were from the same village and included relatives of the people at the celebration.
Mehmet Çelebi’s brother Süleyman Çelebi, another suspect in the case, had apparently committed suicide by hanging himself in prison on April 27, 2011, leading to speculations the murder was meant to silence him. Following Süleyman Çelebi’s conviction, suspicions focused on his brother Mehmet Çelebi as the mastermind of the massacre.
Çorum Heavy Penal court went on hearing the case after the overturn verdict of the Supreme Court on 6 July 2012. M.Ç.’s lawyer Eşref Kaya, asked the court to adjourn the hearing on the grounds that the result of the DNA test of Fesih Çelebi did not arrive yet. The court approved the demand and adjourned the hearing to 9 August 2012.
(07/077) Ongoing KCK/TMKCK Par lament Turkey Main Case in İstanbul Province…
İstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 15 went on hearing the case against 205 defendants -140 of them pre-trial detainees and 23 of them were fugitives- on 6 July 2012.
The court declined all the demands of the lawyers except the reading of the whole indictment and adjourned the hearing to 9 July 2012. Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution Office had finalised the indictment against 193 people -147 of the pre-trial detainees- who had been detained in various dates in the framework of KCKUnion of Communities in Kurdistan investigation and sent the 2401 pages of indictment for the evaluation of Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 15 on 19 March 2012. Writer Ragıp Zarakolu had been charged with “helping and harbouring an illegal organisation” under Article 220/7 and Prof. Dr. Büşra Ersanlı had been charged with “being an executive of illegal organisation”.
İstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 15 released Writer Ragıp Zarakolu, Muhsin Yenisöz, İrfan Hülakü, Lütfü Balbal, Ali Geritli, Songül Karatagna, Nahit Onat, Zeynal Çelik, Neci Elmas, Burhanettin Toprak, İsmail Zeybek, Evrim Öztürk, Yasin Yalçın, Cemalettin Görbegir, Alaattin Güneş on the grounds that the probability that the qualification of the charges could be change and the conditions of the evidences as well as taking the period of time spent in prison as pre-trial detainees.
(07/078) Banned meeting in Diyarbakır Province…
On 8 July 2012 Diyarbakır Governorate banned the meeting of the Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDPPeace and Democracy Party ) which was planned to be held in Diyarbakır Province on 14 July 2012.
(07/079) Home raids in Mersin Province...
Three people were detained in synchronised home raids of the Fighting with Terrorism Department teams in Mersin Province on 6 July 2012.
(07/080) Home raid in Van Province...
Mustafa Yabalak, the BDP’s District Branch’s former Chairperson and a person allegedly a militant of the HPG who had been detained in home raids in Lêman (Lican) Village of Bahçesaray District of Van Province on 5 July 2012, were arrested on 9 July 2012.
(07/081) KCK Operation in İzmir Province…
Forty people were detained on charges of preparing fake ID cards for KCK in İzmir, İstanbul, Diyarbakır, Ankara, Hakkâri, Batman, Gaziantep and Mardin Provinces on 7 July 2012.
(07/082) Detained vice mayor…
Silopi Vace Mayor Haşim Özdemir was detained by the Fighting with Terrorism Department teams in Mersin Province on 7 July 2012.
(07/083) Detentions and arrests…
Five out of the 13 detainees who had been detained in Al-Qaida operation in Gaziantep Province on 4 July 2012 were arrested on 7 July 2012.
(07/084) Intervention to the funeral in Mersin Province…
Eighty-three people were detained in the funeral of Şükrü Sezer, the HPG militant killed in the clash Beşdam Village of Malazgirt District of Muş Province on 27 June 2012, in Mersin Province on 7 July 2012.
(07/085) Home raids in Adana Province...
Five juveniles were detained in synchronised home raids of the Fighting with Terrorism Department teams in Yüreğir District of Adana Province on 8 July 2012. Juveniles charged with participating in various illegal protests.
(07/086) Fighting with Terrorism Law in practise…
The Research and Improvement Association for Kurdish Language (Kurdi-Der) Batman Branch Chairperson Abdullah Batı was arrested on the grounds that his sentence (3 years and 3 months of imprisonment on charges of “making propaganda of an illegal organisation” under Article 7/2 of Anti-Terror Law) have been approved by the Supreme Court on 8 July 2012.
