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Alert

Human rights leader Akin Birdal sentenced

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - The following is the full text of a letter sent by
ARTICLE 19 on 30 July 1998 to Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz:




I am writing to you to express our distress at the sentencing on 28 July of
Akin Birdal, President of the Human Rights Association (IHD), to
imprisonment of one year by the Ankara State Security Court. This prison
sentence and the associated fine of TL 420,000 were levied on Mr. Birdal
under Article 312/2 of the Turkish Penal Code dealing with ‘incitement’ to
hostility. Mr. Birdal merely called for a peaceful solution to the ongoing
conflict in the south-east of your country. As such the sentence is a
flagrant breach of internationally accepted human rights standards to which
Turkey is party.

That this sentence is imposed on an internationally respected human rights
campaigner, still recovering from an armed attack on 12 May (which nearly
cost him his life) by members of an extremist group with links to the state,
illustrates the disregard for basic human rights which sadly characterises
Turkey today. We urge that you do everything in your power to overturn this
and other similar penal sentences imposed upon people for non-violent
freedom of expression.

Frances D’Souza
Executive Director