1. PRESS RELEASE JUNE 21st, 2013
We, the undersigned, being a delegation of lawyers from five
European countries, observed the fifth hearing, on the 20th June,
2013, of the trial of 46 lawyers, our colleagues, who face
prosecution for being members of an illegal organisation, allegedly
in the course of undertaking their professional duties, i.e acting
as defence lawyers for the imprisoned Kurdish leader, Abdullah
Öcalan. While the procedures used by the authorities leading up to
the arrests, for example, seizure of confidential and privileged
documents including client files, unlawful and unwarranted phone
tapping and intercepting of private correspondence including emails,
violate internationally acknowledged standards in human rights law,
we are concerned that the hearings themselves breach the various
criteria to be complied with to ensure that trials are "fair". The
defendants have had very limited opportunities to challenge the
prosecutor's evidence which has appeared most speculative and
flimsy, but when they have done, they have exposed the indictments
as being more often in the realm of fantasy than of fact. The
persistent and common use of "pre-trial detention" coupled with the
refusal by the Ministry of Justice or the presiding judge to
allocate more than one single day to these hearings means that the
trial of the lawyers is adjourned time after time, with intervals of
three months between each hearing, so that the defendants, innocent
and not convicted, are made to spend many months, even years, in
prison. This treatment we consider to be not only excessively
punitive, but also causing extreme trauma to the lawyers and their
families. Also, these constant adjournments hinder the delivery in
court of an effective defence to the charges in the indictments. In
addition, of concern to the delegation was the reliance by the
Prosecutor on a witness statement which that witness later
retracted, stating that it was made under police duress, and that
the words in the statement were not his own. The defence requested
that the first, and now retracted, statement be removed from the
evidence file since it formed one of the main grounds for the
indictments, but this request was refused. Since the principal
witness for the defence is Abdullah Öcalan, whom the Prosecutor
accuses of employing the defendants in his "Leadership
Organisation", the defence has asked, at every hearing including

2. this last one, that he should be called to be cross-examined in
court, and prove to the judge that no such body exists and that his
lawyers were never instructed by him to promote any acts of
terrorism or act against the State. This demand was also rejected.
To conclude, the international delegation regards these trials as
"political", and deplores, in the strongest terms, the obstacles,
such as the constant adjournments and delays, to the defendants
obtaining a "fair trial" that complies with international standards.
It also regards the arrests, indictments, and detentions of the
lawyers as clear breaches of the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Lawyers. The rights of citizens to be defended, the presumption of
innocence before a criminal conviction, the right to bail, the
rights of lawyers to go about their professional duties without
harassment, and the independence of the judiciary are fundamental to
the establishment and continuation of a democracy. These lawyers
were simply doing their job. The release from custody of a further
seven lawyers, leaving now only fifteen in prison, does not reduce
our concern. All should be released and allowed to return to their
offices to take up again their professional duties as lawyers, to
the benefit of society generally, and the charges dropped.
We will be present at the next hearing on September 17th.
UK Bar Human Rights Committee
Barreau d’Angers
Barreau de Bordeaux
Barreau des Hauts de Seine
Barreau de Paris
Barreau de Rennes
Barreau de Rouen
Barreau de Toulouse Conseil National des Barreaux
Conférence des Bâtonniers de France et d’Outre-Mer
Fair Trial Watch
Institut des Droits de l’Homme du Barreau de Grenoble
Institut des Droits de l’Homme du Barreau de Montpellier
Syndicat des Avocats de France
Union Internationale des Avocats Union des Jeunes Avocats
Deutscher Anwaltverein
Republikanischer Anwältinnen und Anwälteverein
Vereinigung Berliner Strafverteidiger e.V.