The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Ms. Leila Zana, Mr. Hatip Dicle, Mr. Orhan Dogan, Mr. Selim Sadak and Mr. Mehmet Sinçar, former members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/182/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 181st session (October 2007),

Taking into account the letter from the President of the Turkish Inter-Parliamentary Group, dated 7 April 2008,

Recalling the following information on file:

• Ms. Zana, Mr. Dicle, Mr. Dogan and Mr. Sadak were sentenced in December 1994 to a 15-year prison term for membership in an armed organization; on 26 June 2001, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that they had not enjoyed a fair trial; a retrial opened in March 2003 before the Ankara State Security Court, which on 21 April 2004 upheld the conviction and the sentence, again without respecting fair trial guarantees; on 9 June and 14 July 2004, the Cassation Court (Yargitay) ruled that Ms. Zana, Mr. Dicle, Mr. Dogan and Mr. Sadak had not received a fair trial, and ordered their release and retrial; at the closure of their second retrial in March 2007, the 11th High Criminal Court of Ankara sentenced Ms. Zana, Mr. Dicle, Mr. Dogan and Mr. Sadak to seven years and six months' imprisonment under Article 5 of the Anti-Terrorism Law 3713 and Article 314 (2) of the Turkish Penal Code as opposed to the 15 years' imprisonment to which they had been sentenced in their first trial in 1994 and of which they had served 10 years; the second retrial was reportedly also flawed, in particular owing to the destruction of important exonerating evidence, for which reason they filed an application in the Cassation Court where the case is now pending; the public prosecutor has likewise filed such an application;

• Mr. Sinçar was assassinated in September 1993 in circumstances that suggested an extrajudicial execution; in January 2005, the then Turkish Minister of Justice affirmed that the killing had been carried out by members of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, an accusation which that group had reportedly refuted; in October 1993 twelve persons had been accused, two of whom were at large; in November 1994, all but those two suspects were acquitted for want of evidence; in April 1996, the then Minister stated that the identity of the murderer had been established but that he was living in Iran,

1. Thanks the President of the Turkish IPU Group for the information provided and for his cooperation;

2. Notes with great interest and satisfaction that a criminal case regarding the murder of Mr. Sinçar is pending and would appreciate more detailed information in this respect, in particular on the suspects; would also appreciate information as to whether or not Mrs. Sinçar has been informed of the trial proceedings under way and, if not, the grounds for having kept her uninformed;

3. Expresses the hope that the proceedings before the Cassation Court will be concluded as quickly as possible, especially given the time that has elapsed since the ECHR concluded in 2001 that the first trial of the four former parliamentarians concerned had fallen short of the fair trial standards guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights;

4. Requests the Secretary General to seek the requested information from the parliamentary authorities and the sources;

5. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 119th Assembly of the IPU (Geneva, October 2008).

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* Mr. Orhan Dogan died on 29 June 2007.

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