Priority Cases
MEHMET DESDE--PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
GOOD NEWS!
Mehmet Desde was released from prison on October 6, 2008. Amnesty International continues to monitor his situation and will provide updates when possible. Thank you to all those who took action on his behalf.
TURKEY
 Mehmet Desde © AI |
For more than a year, Turkish authorities have imprisoned Mehmet Desde for the peaceful expression of his political views. Following an unfair trial, authorities convicted him in June 2007 of having a connection with the Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan/Turkey), which is a small, non-violent political party. His conviction was based largely on statements allegedly extracted under torture.
Mehmet Desde was initially held in a high-security prison in Antalya where he was not allowed to spend sufficient time outside his prison cell and associate with others; this was a violation of Turkish regulations and international law. Authorities subsequently transferred him to a lower security prison in Tire where he shares a small cell with two other prisoners. Here he has access to a small open-air yard adjacent to his cell daily, though this area is not large enough to accommodate much physical exercise. By order of the Ministry of Justice (Circular 45/1), prisons are obliged to provide alternative spaces for education, sports, social and cultural activities in prisons. Mr. Desde and his cellmates are not allowed to associate with the rest of the inmates as they are the only people imprisoned in Tire for what the authorities consider to be political offenses; their isolation has no legal basis. Under that same Circular 45/1 order, prisoners such as Mehmet Desde should be able to meet with other prisoners for up to 10 hours per week. The ministry's order has remained largely unimplemented.
The convictions of Mehmet Desde and four others for "membership in an illegal organization," and of three more people for "supporting an illegal organization" were upheld by the 9th Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Turkey's highest court. This decision came after a five-year judicial process which included two retrials of the eight men and two previous decisions by the Court of Cassation to quash verdicts of the lower court. The lower court's public prosecutor in both retrials had recommended the acquittal of the defendants, and the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation recommended that the verdicts be quashed.
Amnesty International considers Mehmet Desde to be a prisoner of conscience, and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.
