Asiye's Story

"They raped me under custody." Asiye Zeybek Güzel could only pronounce this truth when she could appear before the court 8 months of after her arrest. She had been unable to voice this bitter experience neither to her husband nor to her relatives, friends and lawyers.

Her lawyers, in the first hearing requested investigation concerning Zeybek's complaints . And a forensic report by the Psychosocial Trauma Center of Istanbul's Çapa Faculty of Medicine confirmed the rape and provided forensic evidence.

"Obsessions related to the traumatic experience (sexual harassment and rape) and post-traumatic stress syndrome observed. And it is deductible that the client highly probably has underwent a traumatic experience," the report said.

A former archeology student, thirty-one-year old Asiye is from central Konya province. Daughter of a tailor, she is the eldest of his four syblings. She is married with a schoolmate, Serdar, who is now in prison and on the 259th day of the ongoing hunger strike across Turkey's penitentiaries.

"She is a chocolate addict," says a friend Emine Güngör who has been recently released from Gebze prison where Asiye is jailed.

Asiye, had been seriously injured during the forcible transfer of political prisoners from Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison to maximum security prisons in Dec. 2000, Gungor told. Yet once recovered, Asiye has concentrated on cinema literature and drama in the prison. "In the last performance she played a night guard," she says giggling.

Asiye was arrested on February 26, 1997 on her way back from work, together with 19 other persons connected to the marxist-leninist newspapers "Atilim" ("Leap") and "Iscinin Yolu" ("The Workers Path"), where Asiye wrote. She was also editor-in-chief of the latter publication.

Nine of these people were released after a few days, the rest except two were released during the year to come.

Asiye and another companion, trade union activist Suleyman Yeter faced the heaviest blows. Yeter was killed under torture during police custody, and Asiye was raped.

Asiye remained under police custody in Istanbul Police Directorate for two weeks where she was raped and brutally tortured. Under torture she was forced to plead guilty for scores of charges and transferred to Kirklareli Prison where informers and criminals are especially contained. Her numerous requests for transfer to a prison closer to her family were refuted until when she started a hunger strike. Then she was transferred to Gebze, 60 kilometers to the east of Istanbul

She has all these five years been contained in different prisons without a final decision or sentence together with a male colleague of hers, Arif Celebi.

Asiye is indicted with "affliations with a clandestine organisation". Should the judges find her guilty, under Article 168 of Turkish Penal Code she is faced with 12 years in prison.

Having evaluated the case far beyond any limit of judicial decency and in clear violation of Article six of the European Convention, her lawyer, Ercan Kanar, has taken the case to the European Court of Human Rights on these grounds.

Jurist Kanar has also taken the rape case there, as the local Fatih District prosecutor acquitted all the policemen in 1999. The prosecutor, in spite of the forensic report decided that there was no evidence against the accused and refuted to bring the case before court. An appeal for a review of the case by the local Beyoglu Penal Court was refuted alike

"Asiye Güzel Zeybek has never had the chance to identify her aggressors," says Kanar. " Asiye has repeatedly, for four years, demanded to confront them, but has so far been denied this."

"This is a crime against article 61/3 of the Turkish Penal Code, that establishes the right for an accuser to confront his/her aggressors," he told. "Since domestic channels for seeking justice for Asiye has been consummated, we will carry the case before European Human Rights Court," he insists.

Throughout her years in prison journalist Asiye Zeybek Güzel has been able to overcome post-traumatic stress syndrome thanks to support from her friends and relatives and published her experiences in a book titled , "A Story of Rape Under Torture"

Acording to Mukaddes Çelik the publisher of Asiye's book , "A Story of Rape under Torture" has so far been published in six editions since 1999 and has sold in 10.000 copies.

She was also arrested at the same time as Asiye, on February 27th, 1997, and remained in custody until December when she was released.

"The book came out of diary that Asiye used to keep in prison," Çelik mentions. She had encouraged her to record down what she had lived: First of all to help Asiye ease her trauma and then to provide an example to encourage all other victims of rape for voicing their own experiences.

Indeed her outspoken stand and courage in publicizing the aggression she has faced under custody has triggered an "Initiative Against Sexual Harassment and Rape" outside of the prison walls. Bringing together victims of rape and sexual harassment the women's initiative has in 2000 succeeded to convene a conference against rape in Istanbul.

The conference's conclusions and testimonies by the victims highlights the ugly truth that Zeybek is not the only victim of rape and torture during custody. According to findings of a "legal assistance" project conducted in Istanbul for such cases between 1997 and 2000 only in this city 132 women have applied for assistance with complaints of rape.

According to official figures between 1995-1999, 577 officials have been prosecuted under charges of torture, yet only 10 out of total accused have been sentenced. The charges for maltreatment too have been handled with similar tolerance. In only 84 cases out of 2,851 cases the accused have been sentenced.

Asiye has paid a heavy price for her dissident journalism. But her stance has brought her respect and recognition at home and abroad.

The Swedish PEN prized her with the "Tucholsky Award 2000". Inaugurated in 1984 in memory of German writer Kurt Tucholsky, the previous awards have gone to such dissidents in exile, under prosecution or threat as Adam Zagajevski, Nuruddin Farah, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin, Shirali Nurmaradov, Mirko Kovac, Svetlana Alexievich, Faraj Sakoohi, Vincent Magombe, Flora Brovina and Salim Barakat.

Having attended the 24th hearing of the case against Zeybek in September 2001 the PEN officals have warned the Turkish authorities that that three basic violations have been committed throughout the prosecution and trial.

"Breaching the legal limit of four days Güzel have been forced to stay under police custody for two weeks.

"Having been under arrest for four and a half years Guzel is neither acquitted nor sentenced for any of the charges she is indicted with.

"And she is denied the chance to present witnesses to the court and the right to identify her aggressors," the PEN oficals say in a public statement they made after the trial and call for her immediate release..

Alas Asiye has to wait until 27 March when the next hearing will take place in Istanbul's State Security Court, as the judges have refused her lawyers demands of Asiye's release.

Asiye's mother too will be waiting for her daughter whom she cannot touch since four and a half years. Attending each and every case with the hope that this time they will walk home together, she for a twenty fourth time had to send her beloved one behind the bars...Will her dreams come true in March will be another litmus test for Turkey's long awaited progress towards freedom.

Emine Güngör, who has been able to spend time with Asiye besides her relatives and lawyers says, "inspite of the difficult and brutal four and a half years in prison Asiye has gained her self confidence, pulled herself together and further encouraged by international solidarity with her colleagues across the globe. Within the prison walls she does not feel herself alone." (ends)