Conscientious Objector Jailed

A military court ordered the imprisonment of Taraf newspaper's contributing writer Ali Fikri Işık (56), on the ground that he committed a crime by being "fugitive soldier". 

Initially arrested in June 2012, Işık has been released in October 2012 providing that he would complete his compulsory military drafting. 

On 19 December 2012 Işık objected military hospital reports that confirmed him a "good candidate" for drafting during a court hearing which was rescheduled to February 27 (yesterday). 

 "Lawyer Hanifi Barış was defending Ali Fikri Işık, but she went abroad for her masters. So my friend has technically no legal assistance. He can't afford it," Fehim Işık, Ali Fikri Işık’s colleague, told bianet.  

 Işık said his colleague has been jailed for his conscientious objection for the second time, which he claimed to be impossible from a legal standpoint. 

"In his prison cell, Ali Fikri started a hunger strike to protest the arrest. I hope the conscientious objection movement will find him a lawyer." (EKN/BM)