Summary and Current Status
Alp Ayan is a Turkish psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He is one of a number of principled Turkish medical doctors who, at great personal risk, have documented cases of torture and treated torture survivors in Turkey and have been targeted for harassment by the Turkish government because of their work and for the peaceful expression of their opinions. Since 1996, Turkish authorities have repeatedly accused Dr. Ayan of wrongdoing. Named as a defendant in 41 cases, he has been acquitted in all but two instances, often following lengthy trials and numerous court appearances.
Dr. Ayan appealed guilty verdicts in the two cases that remain pending against him before Turkey’s Supreme Court several years ago. Given that significant time has elapsed without any court ruling being made, Dr. Ayan reportedly has been advised by his lawyer that it is highly unlikely that his sentence (totaling three years and one day) will be enforced, even if his guilty verdicts are eventually upheld on appeal.
In the first case, Dr. Ayan was part of a group of people who were arrested in September 1999 when they were en route to the funeral of an inmate who had been killed by security forces. After 113 days in pre-trial detention, he was charged with participating in an “illegal demonstration” and “resisting the police with violence,” and released pending trial. After a trial that lasted more than four years, on February 13, 2004, he was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months and one day in prison.
In the second case, on July 24, 1996, a nongovernmental organization issued a press statement about Turkish prisoners who were on a hunger strike to protest their harsh conditions of confinement. As the spokesperson for the group, Dr. Ayan read this statement aloud to a gathering of people. He was later charged with participation in an “illegal meeting.” In June 1999, he was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is currently at liberty, pending the outcome of these appeals. Amnesty International has stated that, if he is imprisoned, Dr. Ayan will be considered a prisoner of conscience.
Background
Dr. Ayan graduated from the Aegean University Medical Faculty in 1984 and completed his specialization in psychiatry from the same institution in 1993. In 1989, Dr. Ayan began to work as a volunteer for the Human Rights Association and Izmir Medical Chamber Human Rights Commission. He helped establish the internationally-respected Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) and worked there as a volunteer until 1994. Since that time, he has worked as a psychiatrist for the HRFT’s Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Izmir—focusing on the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors, detection and documentation of evidence of torture, and the training of health professionals.
Dr. Ayan was a contributing author of the Istanbul Protocol, a manual for the effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. It was a joint project of the HRFT, the Association of Forensic Medical Specialists, and the Turkish Medical Association. After it was adopted by the United Nations in 2000, Dr. Ayan and a team from these three institutions prepared training modules based on the manual for physicians and lawyers and organized seminars in several Turkish cities.
Currently, Dr. Ayan is part of a team that is spearheading the Istanbul Protocol Implementation Project. In this capacity, he has collaborated in the preparation of an international Generic Module, which is being used for training of medical doctors and lawyers in several pilot countries in different regions of the world.
From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Ayan was the spokesperson for the Izmir Anti-Isolation Platform, a nongovernmental organization founded to peacefully speak out against the Turkish government’s use of the then new F-type prisons—that consist solely of single cells or cells for three prisoners—and to inform the public about the negative effects that the harsh conditions of confinement in such prisons have on the physical and mental health of those incarcerated therein. The Platform’s concern that the isolation of inmates in F-type prisons would make them particularly vulnerable to increased abuse by prison guards and officials has been heightened by reliable reports of mistreatment, including torture and extended periods in solitary confinement.
From 2002 to 2005, Dr. Ayan was the HRFT representative to the Independent Prison Observation Group (IPOGI). IPOGI was formed by the HRFT, the Izmir Bar Association, the Izmir Medical Association, the Human Rights Association, and the Union of Chambers of Architects and Engineers in Turkey to research the negative effects of isolation on the psychological health of prisoners and to use its findings to advocate on their behalf.
During the 2005-2006 academic year, Dr. Ayan was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital 2006. Nominated for this position by the CHR, Dr. Ayan was selected by the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies in collaboration with the Scholars at Risk Network.
In 2006, Dr. Ayan received the Barbara Chester Award, which “honors worthy persons who undertake the difficult and often dangerous work of providing healing services in circumstances of torture.”
As a result of their work and their peaceful expression of opinions with regard to torture and prison conditions in Turkey, over the years Dr. Ayan and other human rights defenders have had multiple law suits brought against them by the authorities of their country. While these suits rarely result in prison sentences, Dr. Ayan and other defendants are frequently subjected to extremely lengthy trials and the suspension of their professional work; at times they are jailed during part or all of the proceedings. For example, since 1996, Dr. Ayan has been a defendant in 41 cases in which the authorities have accused him of wrongdoing. To date, Dr. Ayan has been acquitted in all but two of these cases. However, the court battles have been extremely time-consuming and have effectively prevented him from giving his undivided attention to his work. In addition, he has had to assume the heavy financial burden of hiring lawyers to present his defense in multiple cases.
The two cases that remain pending against Dr. Ayan are illustrative of both the type of harassment that has occurred and the tactics that are used to prolong a legal case. Dr. Ayan appealed both guilty verdicts before the Supreme Court of Turkey (Yargitay) several years ago. Amnesty International has stated that, if he is imprisoned, it will consider Dr. Ayan to be a prisoner of conscience. He is currently at liberty, pending the outcome of these appeals. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled in either case. Both cases were subject to the 2000 “Law to Postpone Sentences.” This law dictated that the Supreme Court would temporarily suspend appeals hearings and wait to render rulings until after March 2006. Given that this date has now passed and significant time has elapsed without rulings, Dr. Ayan has reportedly been advised by his lawyer that it is highly unlikely that his sentences will be enforced, even if his guilty verdicts are upheld on appeal.
In the first case, Dr. Ayan and some 68 others were detained on September 30, 1999. The detainees had come to the village of Helvaci in the vicinity of Aliaga, Izmir for the funeral of Nevzat Ciftci, one of the prisoners killed on September 26, 1999, during an uprising in Ankara Ulucanlar Central Closed Prison. (The Turkish gendarmerie used force to quell the unrest; 10 prisoners were killed, and 28 prisoners and guards were injured.) Video footage taken by the gendarmes themselves and viewed by the court reportedly indicates that, when Dr. Ayan and the others insisted on entering the village to participate in the peaceful funeral procession, police officers resorted to violence to stop and detain them. Nonetheless, they were later charged for taking part in an “illegal demonstration,” “attacking the gendarmes with stones and bottles,” and “resisting and opposing through violent means.”
While most of those detained with Dr. Ayan were released shortly thereafter, he and thirteen others were remanded to prison on October 3, 1999, by the Penal Court of First Instance in Aliaga on the charge of violating Article 2911 of the Turkish Penal Code (which sets the parameters for legal meetings, demonstrations, and marches). That court subsequently declared itself “non-competent” in the case. Reportedly the State Security Court in Izmir then concluded that the "demonstration" had been legal, but also declared itself to be non-competent to hear the case. The case was then sent to the Supreme Court, which, after three months, sent it back to the Aliaga Penal Court of First Instance. On January 20, 2000, the presiding judge withdrew from the case, saying that he was not trusted and sent the case to a higher Karsiyaka Heavy Penal Court. That same day, after 113 days in pre-trial detention, Dr. Ayan and the others remanded with him were released from Bergama E-Type Prison, pending the outcome of the trial. The case was then returned again to the Aliaga Penal Court of First Instance, which held a hearing on December 19, 2003, at which the prosecutor presented his sentencing recommendations for all of the defendants. On February 13, 2004, Dr. Ayan was sentenced to 18 months and one day in prison. Twenty-eight co-defendants received 18-month sentences and were fined 60 million Turkish lira (about US $45) each, defendant Adnan Akin was sentenced to three years and one day, and the rest were acquitted. Dr. Ayan and the others who were convicted have brought appeals before the Supreme Court.
In the second case, in his capacity as spokesperson for the Izmir Platform against Oppression in all Prisons, Dr. Ayan read a press statement prepared by that nongovernmental organization on July 24, 1996, at a time when Turkish inmates were engaged in massive hunger strikes to protest their harsh conditions of confinement. Charged under Article 2911 of the Turkish Penal Code, Dr. Ayan was convicted in this case, in June 1999, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He immediately appealed this verdict before the Supreme Court.
Three Acquittals in 2004
A string of three acquittals in 2004 further elucidates the pattern of persecution of Dr. Ayan and other human rights defenders in Turkey. In the first instance, Dr. Ayan and another Izmir Anti-Isolation Platform member—Mehmet Barindik—were acquitted on September 16, 2004, in a legal case opened under Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting” the Ministry of Justice. At a January 13, 2001, demonstration they reportedly read aloud a press statement by the platform that criticized the government’s forcible transfer of prisoners to six new F-type prisons and then encouraged the public to chant slogans such as “Human dignity will overcome torture” and “Together against fascism.” (A third co-defendant, Abdulbari Yusufoglu, died in September 2001 after fasting for 137 days to protest the transfer of prisoners to the F-type prisons.)
Dr. Ayan and Mr. Barindik were tried, convicted, and sentenced, on June 10, 2002, to one year in prison. On appeal, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the press statement fell within the legal limits of criticism and returned the case to the lower court for reconsideration. (In Turkey the Supreme Court does not have the authority to rule on a case. It can either confirm or quash the decisions of lower courts, or decide which court properly has jurisdiction.) Although the public prosecutor argued for acquittal, that court upheld its earlier decision and, on appeal, the Supreme Court once again quashed the lower court’s verdict and sent it back for reconsideration. This time, the defendants were acquitted.
In the second instance Dr. Ayan and co-defendant Ecevit Piroglu (a former HRFT board member from Izmir) were charged under Article 2911 of the Turkish Penal Code for holding an illegal meeting to release a press statement critical of F-type prisons. Initially Dr. Ayan and Mr. Piroglu were among 41 defendants who were indicted on May 22, 2001. Although the Turkish Security Forces testified that the statement in question was made without incident and that the 100-150 people present dispersed immediately thereafter and although all of the other defendants were acquitted on June 9, 2003, the public prosecutor argued that Dr. Ayan and Mr. Piroglu should be imprisoned. On April 26, 2004, the Izmir Penal Court of First Instance No. 8 ruled that Article 2911 had not been violated and acquitted both men.
The third acquittal took place on March 26, 2004. In this instance, Dr. Ayan had been charged under Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code with “insulting” the Ministry of Justice and the gendarmeries in a press statement that he read during a February 2002 meeting of human rights defenders. The statement alleged that prisoners held in F-type prisons were being subjected to mistreatment and torture. Resolution of the case was delayed by a dispute about which court had jurisdiction in the matter, necessitating a ruling by the Supreme Court before it could proceed.
|
|
|
Subscribe to e-newsletters |
Feedback | Back to Top