IPU mission to Turkey to follow up on human rights abuses against MPs

IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to follow up on several cases involving Turkish MPs. ©REUTERS/U. Bektas

IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians will undertake a four-day mission to Turkey in a bid to make progress on resolving several cases involving the human rights abuses of MPs.

The IPU mission from 24-27 February will hold meetings with parliamentary and judicial authorities. Led by British MP Ann Clwyd and Swiss MP Margaret Kiener Nellen, its main objective is to obtain first-hand information of the on-going judicial proceedings against nine parliamentarians elected in June 2011 whilst in prison.

These MPs are being tried for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government or for alleged membership of a group with links to the banned Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK.

The mission will seek clarity on charges brought against the MPs and on the facts and evidence presented to substantiate them. It will also seek information on the measures taken by the Turkish authorities to allow these parliamentarians the free exercise of their mandate and to prevent similar situations in the future.

Seven of the nine MPs were released provisionally after the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that the length of their detentions amounted to a violation of their right to stand for election.

They were sworn into parliament after being granted provisional release but are either facing trial or waiting for the resolution of pending appeals after having been handed down lengthy jail sentences.

IPU has received allegations about the lack of respect of the parliamentarians’ right to a fair trial, the fabrication of some of the evidence and the excessive length of proceedings and pre-trial detention.

The IPU mission will also follow up on the case of Mehmet Sinçar, a former Kurdish member of the Grand National Assembly assassinated in 1993.

Two men were sentenced to life for the killing. However, Sinçar’s family appealed the verdict considering the Court failed to establish the identity of the instigators or to take into account the alleged involvement of agents of the Turkish Intelligence Service. The Committee wants to know when the appeal will be heard and expects that the proceedings will open up real prospects to shed full light on Sinçar’s assassination.