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Volume 2, Number 7              March 24 - 30,  2002                   Quezon City, Philippines

Worldwide Campaign to Free Turkish Journalist Launched in Brussels

Turkish journalist Memik Horuz’s arrest and detention are severe attacks on the freedom of the press and an attack on democratic rights, according to various groups determined to secure his freedom.

BY BULATLAT.COM
 

BRUSSELS, Belgium --- Groups supporting imprisoned Turkish journalist Memik Horuz, are determined to secure his freedom.

This they manifested during a press conference at the Café Greenwich in this city last week launching the campaign to free the Turkish journalist detained and accused of publishing an interview with an illegal organization in the newspaper he edits in Turkey.

Among those who spoke at the presscon were Fatiha Dhamani of the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), Dr. Fincanci, a Turkish forensic expert, Dan Borjal of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) and Dr. Anne van Mackelenbergh of the People’s Rights Watch in Belgium.

“Memik Horuz’s arrest and detention are severe attacks on the freedom of the press and an attack on democratic rights,” said Fatiha Dhamani, a lawyer with the IAPL, one of the groups campaigning for Horuz’s release.

Dhamani likened the accusation against Horuz by the Turkish government as a form of harassment against a progressive journalist. She said that the alleged witness against Horuz gave inconsistent testimonies and that the court ignored the fact that a person living in Germany has already owned authorship of the newspaper article being attributed to Horuz.

Dhamani condemned the Turkish judicial system saying the defense in Horuz’s case is being kept in the dark as to the prosecution’s evidence and witnesses against Horuz, and that defense lawyers are being denied the right to scrutinize papers and documents relevant to the case by Turkish authorities.

“The scenario has already been set to make it impossible to proceed with a just and fair resolution of the case,” Dhamani said.

Dr. Fincanci, a Turkish forensic doctor based in Istanbul and member of the Turkish Medical Association, called for an end to the use of isolation cells (or F-type cells) because of their serious psychological effects on prisoners in Turkey.

She said the recent death fast by several Turkish political prisoners was precisely calling for a stop to the use of the F-type cells.

Fincanci said even the prestigious Turkish Medical Association and the Turkish Bar Association have objected to the use of F-type prisons.

Dan Borjal of the ILPS general secretariat in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in a statement described Memik Horuz as a prisoner of conscience.

“Memik Horuz is now in prison not because he is a criminal but because he is a man of principle fighting for the democratic rights of the people,” Borjal said. “He is one of many progressive journalists in Turkey who have suffered harassment and intimidation from the repressive Turkish government.”

Borjal said the ILPS is also fighting for thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience throughout the world who suffer from unjust imprisonment, citing the cases of Mumia Abu-Jamal who is imprisoned in the United States and Abimayel Guzman in Peru.

“Many of them are arrested because they are opposed to the economic and social policies of their governments,” the ILPS member said. “These policies violate the democratic rights of the people and destroy the people’s livelihood but promote the selfish interest of giant multinational corporations and the native privileged elite. Many of them are arrested without warrants, denied due process, kept in detention indefinitely without charges and suffer torture.”

Dr. Anne van Mackelenbergh of the Brussels-based People’s Rights Watch and coordinator of the International Campaign to Free Memik Horuz, said the campaign to free Horuz would be carried out worldwide, spearheaded by media organizations, lawyers, medical doctors, human rights organizations and by the ILPS, of which Horuz is the elected deputy chairperson.

Protest actions in the United States, Canada, Philippines, England, India, The Netherlands and other countries were held simultaneously with the Brussels press conference.

An international delegation composed of lawyers, medical doctors, members of parliament, journalists and other human rights advocates was set to leave Belgium and the Netherlands for Turkey on March 16 until March 19 to attend the court hearing of Horuz on March 18. The delegation is also expected to attend meetings in Istanbul and Ankara with different human rights organizations, lawyers, different bar associations, diplomats, ex-political prisoners and hunger strikers to investigate the repression and curtailment of the freedom of the speech and of the press.

A bigger press conference was scheduled on March 22 in the Hague, The Netherlands to make public the report of the international delegation. (D. L. Mondelo, chief correspondent for Europe, Bulatlat.com)

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