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    Categories: 2021

Human rights lawyers become “endangered species” in Turkey

Amnesty International


By Stefan Simanowitz
Jan. 23, 2021


At the end of each year, the demise of the world’s most endangered
species is charted in a sadly familiar list, from tigers and snow
leopards to rhinos and gorillas.

But it’s not just wildlife that is at risk. Today marks the Day of the
Endangered Lawyer, a moment to recognize the threats facing lawyers
around the world who dare to stand up for human rights. In recent
years Amnesty International has felt the impact of these threats close
to home, through the government crackdown on our colleagues in Turkey.

One was a sunny morning in June 2017 I got a call. Taner Kılıç, our
then chair of Amnesty International Turkey and a tireless asylum
rights lawyer in Izmir, had been arrested in a dawn raid. Detention
orders for 22 other lawyers had also been issued.


A month later, Idil Eser, then director of Amnesty Turkey, was
arrested along with nine others, including human rights lawyer Günal
Kurşun.

Taner Kılıç, Idil Eser and the other nine arrested were all accused of
absurd terrorism-related charges and held in pre-trial detention for
many months – almost 15 in Taner’s case.

During a three-year trial involving 12 court hearings, each and every
allegation presented by the government was comprehensively exposed as
a baseless accusation.

And yet, last July, Taner was sentenced to six years and three months
in prison for ‘membership of the Fethullah Gülen terrorist
organization’. Turkey blames the Gülen movement for the 2016 attempted
coup.

İdil Eser, Günal Kurşun and another human rights defender, Özlem
Dalkıran, were also convicted and sentenced to one year and 13 months
for ‘assisting the Fethullah Gülen terrorist organization’. A few
months later in November, a regional appeals court upheld the
unfathomable convictions, rubberstamping the miscarriage of justice.
The four defenders have taken their case to the highest appeals court.

The fact that these politically motivated verdicts swept up several
lawyers drove home the increased danger to the legal community in
Turkey. Their cases are far from rare. Detaining lawyers has become
routine practice, deepening the climate of fear and repression across
the country.


Hundreds of lawyers are now believed to be in pre-trial detention or
serving prison terms in Turkey’s overcrowded jails. They are regularly
targeted through abusive criminal investigations and unfair
prosecutions, accused of the alleged crimes of their clients.

Veteran human rights lawyer, Eren Keskin, has been on the receiving
end of more than 100 criminal prosecutions for her role as a ‘symbolic
editor’ of the now shuttered Özgür Gündem newspaper. If the sentences
pending against her, Taner and Günal are upheld on appeal, all three,
who are currently on bail, would be sent to prison and unable to
practice law again.

In September, almost 50 lawyers were arrested in dawn raids across
Turkey. They are facing charges because the clients they had been
representing are accused of being part of the Gülen movement.

The latest blow came in November, when dozens of lawyers were among
more than 100 people issued with detention warrants as part of what
Turkish authorities called “terrorism-related investigations” in
Diyarbakır.
Commenting on the increasing number of arrests, the Istanbul Bar
Association said: “A lawyer cannot be identified with their client.
Intimidation which hopes to restrict the lawyers’ duty will impact the
public as much as lawyers and gradually destroy confidence in
justice.”

The targeting of defence lawyers with criminal charges for executing
their duties contravenes the UN Basic Principles on the Role of
Lawyers and critically undermines the right to a fair trial.

Lawyers are also coming under physical, sometimes fatal, attack. Tahir
Elçi, a prominent human rights lawyer, died after being shot in the
south-eastern province of Diyarbakır in 2015.

Two years ago, Turkey was the focus of the global ‘Day of the
Endangered Lawyer’. Dozens of lawyers protested behind a banner that
read ‘If lawyers lose their voice, citizens lose their breath.’

But little has improved in Turkey since then. Instead, the targeting
and harassment of lawyers through the misuse of the justice system has
become more acute.

Through abusive investigations, arbitrary detentions and unfounded
prosecutions under vaguely defined anti-terrorism laws, Turkey is
eroding the basic tenets of the rule of law.

In such a repressive climate the people who step up in defence of
human rights violations themselves become targets. The job of defence
and human rights lawyers is increasingly vital in Turkey, but ever
more dangerous.

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Stefan Simanowitz is Amnesty International’s media manager for Europe.


 

Elizabeth Jabejian: