Human Rights Activists Acquitted

Huseyin Kayaci, a leftist prisoner starved to death on May 6, 2001 in a hunger strike protesting Turkey's F-type high security prisons. Kayaci had started his hunger strike at the Buca prison in the Aegean province of Izmir.

On May 8, police arrested 47 people who attended Kayaci's funeral for shouting slogans.

The 47 people who were tried with charges of "supporting a terrorist organization and disseminating separatist propaganda," were acquitted. They faced up to eight years in prison if found guilty.

International observers attended

Inge Genevke, head of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), a Swedish journalist, Sema Kilicer from Turkey Representative of the European Commission, Gunseli Kaya from the Izmir branch of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TIHV), and other human rights activists attended the hearing at the Izmir State Security Court (DGM).

Among the defendants were Mustafa Ufacik, head of the Izmir branch of the Modern Jurists' Association (CHD), Yusuf Gencer from the Turkish general workers' union (Genel-Is), Mihriban Karakaya and Ecevit Piroglu from the Human Rights Association (IHD), lawyer Ceren Demir, Mehmet Barindik from the dock and shipyard employees' union (Limter-Is), Alp Ayan, a member of the TIHV board of directors, and Ozgur Kaya, an Izmir representative of the Yeniden Atilim (Afresh Advance) newspaper. (BB/NK/EA/NM)