The
Observatory has been informed about the judicial harassment and
upcoming trial hearing of Ms Elif
Tirenç İpek Ulaş,
a lawyer, women’s rights defender and board member of the Rosa
Women’s Association (Rosa
Kadın Derneği).
Rosa Women’s Association is a civil society organisation focusing
on violence against women and women’s rights in Diyarbakır and
overall South-Eastern region in Turkey. The Association has supported
more than 160 women who survived from violence.
On
December 22, 2022, the eighth hearing in the ongoing trial of Elif
Tirenç İpek Ulaş on the charge of “membership to an armed
terrorist organisation” (Article 314/2 of the Turkish Penal Code)
will be held before the Diyarbakır 8th Heavy Penal Court. If
convicted, Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş could face up to 10 years of
imprisonment.
The
case against Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş began in May 2020, when
Diyarbakır prosecution authorities launched investigations into
members of Rosa Women’s Association. The authorities then divided
individual cases per person and the investigation against Elif Tirenç
İpek Ulaş initiated in August 2020.
According
to the indictment drawn up by the Diyarbakır Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office, the charges relate to the allegation that Rosa
Women’s Association would praise and defend the activities and
principles of the Kurdistan Labour Party (PKK), which would make
members and board members of the Association members of an armed
terrorist organisation.
Apart
from the general allegations against the association, the indictment
against Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş presents only one anonymous witness
statement as the basis of her alleged “membership to an armed
terrorist organisation”. This anonymous statement alleges that, as
an attorney, Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş regularly visits women
prisoners convicted for terrorism-related charges, financially
assists them, and provides them communication with the PKK and the
outer world. Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş denied these allegations,
explaining that the aim of Rosa Women’s Association is to advocate
to put an end to violence against women, and that she did not carry
any prison visit in the last three years nor is familiar with any of
the women prisoners the anonymous witness mentioned. So far,
Diyarbakır 8th Heavy Penal Court did not inquire into the
allegations and defences of the parties.
On
September 22, 2022, during the latest hearing on Elif Tirenç İpek
Ulaş’s case, the presiding judge of the Diyarbakır 8th Heavy
Penal Court ordered every interview, press releases, public event,
and all sorts of public activities organised by the Rosa Women’s
Association to be added to the case file, since the defendant is a
board member of the association. Although this expansion of the
allegations in the indictment constitutes an infringement of the
criminal procedure and due process, the presiding judge overruled the
procedural objections of the defence against this decision.
The
Observatory recalls that starting
from May 2020,
as part of a crackdown on women’s rights defenders in Diyarbakır,
a great number of women have faced police raids, arbitrary arrests
and detention, as well as trumped-up criminal investigations and
prosecutions. Various lawful and legitimate activities of the
association, including women’s marches, protests, interviews and
press releases were alleged to be terrorist activities. Raids and
waves of arrests took place notably in May
2020,
July
2020
and April
2021
within the scope of investigations against activities of the Rosa
Women’s Association and Free Women’s Movement (Tevgera
Jinen Azad – TJA).
These investigations resulted in the detention and conviction of
several women’s rights defenders under various spurious charges,
including under Turkey’s anti-terrorism legislation which is
systematically abused to judicially harass human rights defenders,
journalists, dissidents, and opposition politicians, particularly HDP
members.
The
Observatory condemns the ongoing judicial harassment against Elif
Tirenç İpek Ulaş on trumped-up charges, which seems to be only
aimed at punishing her for her legitimate human rights activities.
The
Observatory urges the authorities in Turkey to drop all the charges
against Elif
Tirenç İpek Ulaş and put
an end to all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level,
against her and all human rights defenders in Turkey.
The
Observatory more generally calls on the authorities to ensure that
all human rights organisations and human rights defenders in Turkey
are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities
without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions, including
judicial harassment, and to guarantee the rights to freedom of
assembly and association in the country.
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