TNAG-0559-FCO40-654-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 199

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In July 1974, the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that political prisoners should be included in the general amnesty which had been announced in May 1974, and as a result all prisoners adopted by AI in Turkey were released. Thomas Hammarberg, a member of Al's International Executive Committee, and Anne Burley of the Research Department were in Turkey at the time of the releases and were able to meet many of Al's former adopted prisoners. They also had an interview with Turkish Minister of Justice Sevket Kazan, with whom they discussed various matters of concern to AI, including the retention of articles 141 and 142 of the Turkish Penal Code, under which all of Al's adopted prisoners had been charged.

Further imprisonments of people charged under articles 141 and 142 have taken place since the amnesty and in two cases, those of Demir Küçükaydin ̧ and Dündar Erenler, publisher and editor of a weekly paper called Kivilcim, sentences of 40 years 6 months were imposed for allegedly propagating commu- nism and forming a communist organization. The sentences were subsequently reduced to 36 years' imprisonment to be followed by 13 years 6 months exile, because this is the maximum term of imprisonment allowed under Turkish law. Both men have been adopted by AI groups as have the accountant and distribu- tor of Kivilcim, who were also imprisoned, but received lighter sentences.

In March 1975, 26 people connected with the publication of a magazine called Aydinlik were brought to trial, accused of “establishing a secret organi- zation aimed at establishing the domination of a social class over other social classes" (Article 141). On 7 March Mr Ennals wrote to the new Prime Minister, Sadi Irmak, to ask that an official investigation be made into the beating of a 15-year old boy, Celâl Kaçmaz, who was taken into custody by the police at the Aydinlik offices and was reported to have been so badly beaten that he was under treatment at the Bakirköy Mental Hospital. The policemen allegedly responsible for beating the boy were named in the letter.

The four prisoners mentioned above are the only cases at present adopted by Al in Turkey, but others are being investigated by the Research Department, including those of the Aydinlik group. The exact number of political prisoners in Turkey is not known. Some people remained in prison after the amnesty because they had been involved in offences not covered by the amnesty or because of the length of their sentences. Some others who have been arrested since July 1974 have already been referred to, but many arrests have been reported in connection with student disturbances, and it is not known how many of these people are still held.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The number of Amnesty International-adopted Soviet prisoners of conscience remains around 350. These are individuals arrested for religious activity, activi- ties in defence of human rights in general, nationalist activity or expression, or attempts to leave the country. As in the past, most adopted prisoners have been convicted under Soviet laws which specifically restrict the exercise of fundamental human rights: freedom of speech, of assembly, of worship, etc. Most adopted prisoners are confined to corrective labour colonies. Those held in prisons or in psychiatric hospitals represent (together) around 15% of the total.