Turkey: a political trial in an aspiring EU member state

Steve Kaczynski campaigned on behalf of Sandra Bakutz. Following his attendance at her court appearance, he reports on her trial.

Sandra Bakutz, an Austrian socialist, was arrested in Turkey on February 10 this year and put on trial for alleged membership of a banned organisation. I campaigned on her behalf in the SSP and elsewhere and attended her March 31 court appearance. (It has since been learned that Sandra has been acquitted of the charge, following a second day of court proceedings on June 1.)

Sandra Bakutz has a long track record of campaigning for political prisoners in Turkey and opposing human rights abuses in that country. She has visited Turkey a number of times. In today’s climate of war on terrorism, international solidarity can be criminalised and Sandra’s case is a good example of this. When she arrived at Istanbul Ataturk Airport on February 10 to attend a mass trial, she was detained and a day or two later was charged with being a member of the DHKP-C.

The people whose trial she was attending were charged with DHKP-C membership or sympathies, and by showing interest in their trial it was obvious, to a certain type of authoritarian personality, that Sandra must herself be a DHKP-C member. Events were to show that the evidence against Sandra was about as weighty as such assumptions. Most of the people whose trial she wanted to observe have been released, though in some cases only after spending a year in jail on remand.

The trial of Sandra Bakutz got under way at Ankara’s Adliye Sarayi (Palace of Justice) on March 31 after Sandra spent six weeks in jail, first in Gebze Prison and then in Ankara Ulucanlar Prison. (The latter was the scene of a prison massacre in September 1999, when 10 left-wing inmates were shot, beaten, burned and tortured to death.)

An international delegation observed the trial and local supporters of Sandra protested outside. One of them was Ulla Roeder, a Danish woman involved in damaging a fighter aircraft in Scotland, and the subject of court action because of it.

The prosecutor claimed Sandra was involved in a November 2000 protest in Brussels, blamed on the DHKP-C, when the then Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem visited the European Parliament. The prosecution cited as evidence an article in the mass circulation Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, though Sandra appeared neither in the article nor in the accompanying photograph.

The prosecutor insisted Sandra must be DHKP-C because she had been on a committee supporting Ilhan Yelkuvan, a Turkish prisoner held in Germany who went on hunger strike early in 2000 to protest against his solitary confinement.

Yelkuvan was accused of being a leading member of DHKP-C and Sandra’s campaigning for him was considered, by the prosecutor, sufficient evidence of her political allegiance.

In 2001, the Turkish authorities issued an arrest order against her, but this was not communicated to Sandra, nor was any attempt made to extradite her - they simply executed it when she arrived in the country this February to attend a mass trial in Istanbul. In a statement Sandra read out in court, she said that she had long campaigned against the use of prison isolation and this was why she campaigned for Ilhan Yelkuvan.

As a journalist, she often came into contact with all kinds of people and it was possible that she met people the Turkish state might consider to be members of DHKP-C.

One of her lawyers pointed out that protesting against Ismail Cem in Brussels was a democratic right, not a crime, and that even if it was a crime, it happened on Belgian soil and was therefore a matter for the Belgian authorities. Her support for Ilhan Yelkuvan was likewise a matter for the German government, not the Turkish, even if it was a crime to support him, which it is not.The prosecutor requested time to gather more evidence, including the original Hurriyet photo plus pictures taken of Sandra in prison.

The judge accepted the prosecutor’s request but in the meantime Sandra was to be released. Later, delegation members went to Ulucanlar to greet her with flowers.

However, instead of being released, we heard from Sandra’s lawyers that she had been taken to the ‘foreigners’ cell’ of a police station, prior to being taken to the airport the next day to go back to Austria.

Clearly, this case has become a diplomatic hot potato, burning the hands of both Austrian and Turkish authorities.

Although it was sad that she could not be present - Sandra had wanted to remain in Turkey for a few days - a celebration was held at Ankara’s Basic Rights and Freedoms Association, at which I presented a letter signed by SSP MSPs, for use in the ongoing campaign for justice for Sandra.

Sandra was due back in court in Ankara on June 1, as the charge against her had not been quashed. Speaking to her on the phone just after her release, she said she wanted to thank everyone who supported her.

She said the last night in the police station was very bad and that she only received post and solidarity messages sent to her in prison when she was released.

I phoned Sandra in May and she told me she did not have to attend the June 1 court hearing, though her lawyers did.

On June 3 it was announced by her solidarity campaign that she had been acquitted. This was no thanks to the local mainstream media, which are good at creating a prejudicial climate against certain people in advance of their trial or during ongoing proceedings.

For example, just after her first court appearance, on April 4, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet asserted that she was a DHKP-C member, though on grounds as flimsy as those raised on March 31.

Sandra and those who campaigned for her have won this battle. The war against injustice in Turkey and indeed elsewhere in the world goes on...

Steve Kaczynski