AP will Discuss Virtual Trial
"The European Parliament, which followed the trial closely, will urgently take up a draft decision about DEP," said Alatas.
Alatas said the European Parliament has been repeating that the "court was not independent and objective and that it was prejudiced," since the first day of the retrial. He added that the court decision proved this.
"The outcome of the trial was not a surprise for me. I was not surprised," said Alatas.
Evidences should be reviewed
Alatas underlined the fact that their demand that the evidence is reviewed, was constantly rejected during the retrial at the DGM. "The prosecutor and the court did not event discuss the evidences," he said.
"You are convicting these people based on which evidence? Based on which evidence are these people shown as criminals?" asked Alatas and said the following:
"The court, which said it had fulfilled the requests of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and that there was no reason to alter the former court decision, put the former decision into effect."
"In my opinion, this decision is more unjust and heavier decision compared to the 1994 decision. Because at the time we did not have the ECHR decision and Turkey did not fully know the provisions of the European Human Rights Convention. But this time, we have an ECHR decision, and the provisions were fully known. Nevertheless the court reached the same decision. Moreover, in these last 10 years we have seen many taboos about Kurds be done away with. But the decision made clear that there is no change in the DGM's point of view since 1994. Although the judges were different in 1994 and 2004, their point of view is the same."
No trial
"Saying this was not a fair trial, does not fully reflect the situation. In other words, the court did not have the intention to retry these people. This was just a virtual trial for show."
Alatas said their request that the evidence should be reviewed was rejected and added that the former DEP deputies should have been released when the retrial began.
"If you are retrying a person, you can't call him or her a criminal until the end of the retrial. The DEP deputies should have been released in March 2003 when the decision to retry them was taken."
Criticizing the government
The government knows very well that there are problems in jurisdiction and that the DGMs are not systems of a fair trial, according to Alatas who said there was an article about this in the package of Constitutional amendments.
"But the government says 'the courts are independent' when it feels like it, and uses this explanation for its own interests," said Alatas.
"During the retrial, there were many statements especially from the Justice Ministry, suggesting DEP deputies were guilty."
"It is unacceptable that a government in Turkey, which cannot establish an independent jurisdiction, is avoiding international responsibilities as well as avoiding to implement ECHR decisions by saying that the courts are free."
"But the government, which had such an approach during this trial because of political reasons, will have to solve this problem in the future with extraordinary measures. The European Parliament will be voting on a draft decision about the outcome of the trial."
Next step
Alatas has appealed the decision and added that they would go to the ECHR if they can't get a positive result from the appeals court.
"We have a much stronger argument in a possible ECHR trial compared to 1994," said Alatas.
Former DEP deputies Orhan Dogan and Hatip Dicle are expected to be released on June 2, 2005. Leyla Zana will be released on June 4, 2005 and Selim Sadak on October 1, 2005. (YS/BB/EA/YE)