TURKEY

CASE N° TK/39 - Leyla Zana CASE N° TK/40 - Sedat Yurtdas CASE N° TK/41 - Hatip Dicle CASE N° TK/42 - Zübeyir Aydar CASE N° TK/43 - Mahmut Alinak CASE N° TK/44 - Ahmet Türk CASE N° TK/48 - Sirri Sakik CASE N° TK/51 - Orhan Dogan

CASE N° TK/52 - Selim Sadak CASE N° TK/53 - Nizamettin Toguç CASE N° TK/55 - Mehmet Sinçar CASE N° TK/57 - Mahmut Kilinç CASE N° TK/58 - Naif Günes CASE N° TK/59 - Ali Yigit CASE N° TK/62 - Remzi Kartal

Resolution adopted without a vote by the Inter-Parliamentary Council
at its 168th session (Havana, 7 April 2001)

The Inter-Parliamentary Council,

Referring to the outline of the case of the above-mentioned parliamentarians, former members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), as contained in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/168/13(c)-R.1), and to the relevant resolution adopted at its 167th session (October 2000),

Recalling that Ms. Zana, Mr. Dicle, Mr. Dogan and Mr. Sadak are at present serving the 15?year prison sentence handed down on them in December 1994 for membership of an armed organisation; that their verdict relied heavily on the deputies' public speeches and writings quoted in the indictment as evidence of their membership of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),

Recalling that, on 8 February 1999, the TGNA voted an amnesty law which suspended the execution of the additional sentences handed down on Mr. Dicle and Ms. Zana for articles they had published while in prison, so long as they refrained from repeating any such statements,

Recalling that Mr. Yurtdas, Mr. Alinak, Mr. Sakik and Mr. Türk were found guilty of separatist propaganda and sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment and a fine; that Mr. Toguç, Mr. Kilinç, Mr. Günes, Mr. Yigit and Mr. Kartal fled abroad and were subsequently also accused of separatism, and would be arrested and prosecuted if they returned to Turkey,

Bearing in mind that in its ruling of November 1997 on the application of Mr. Sakik, Mr. Türk, Mr. Alinak, Ms. Zana, Mr. Dicle and Mr. Dogan, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that there had been a violation of Article 5 (right to liberty), paragraphs 3 (right of anyone arrested to be brought promptly before a judge and tried within a reasonable time or released), 4 (right to judicial review of arrest and detention), and 5 (right to compensation of everyone who has been the victim of arrest or detention in contravention of any provision of Article 5), of the European Convention on Human Rights; considering that, according to information provided by the Turkish authorities, the former deputies concerned were paid compensation in line with Article 5, paragraph 5, of the Convention,

Recalling that on 9 March 1999 the European Commission on Human Rights, in relation to a second application lodged by Ms. Zana, Mr. Dicle, Mr. Dogan and Mr. Sadak invoking inter alia a violation of their right to fair trial, found that there had been a violation of this right on grounds of their having been judged by a State Security Court comprising a military judge and thus by a court failing to meet the criteria of an independent and impartial tribunal, and of disrespect for the rights of the defence; the case is now pending before the European Court of Human Rights and a judgment is imminent,

Noting that in his communication of 17 January 2001, while refuting the position which the Inter-Parliamentary Union has consistently expressed in this case, the President of the Turkish Inter-Parliamentary Group requested that the examination of this case be suspended pending the judgment in question,

Considering that the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, a supranational judicial body, is binding upon Turkey and that the Court's findings will consequently be essential to the further treatment by the IPU of this case,

1. Decides to postpone further examination of the case, pending the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights;

2. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the parliamentary authorities and the sources;

3. Requests the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to report to it at its next session (September 2001) in the light of any judgment meanwhile handed down by the European Court of Human Rights.

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