May 5, 1999
His Excellency Selcuk Oztek
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed by yesterday’s verdict in the retrial of 11 police officers accused in the January 1996 murder of Metin Goktepe, a journalist with the leftist daily Evrensel.
The Afyon court’s decision to sentence the six officers to a lenient seven and a half years in prison for “involuntary homicide” is nearly identical to the sentence imposed on March 19, 1998, in the initial trial. As in the original verdict, Thursday’s decision by the court leaves no doubt about the culpability of Turkish police officers in the appalling beating death of Goktepe. However, the sentences fail once again to send the message we had hoped for from the Turkish judiciary that violent attacks by police against journalists will no longer be tolerated in Turkey.
As we noted last year in our March 20, 1998 letter to-then Justice Minister Oltan Sungurlu, the sentences handed down against the officers convicted of homicide pale in comparison to some of those imposed on journalists who are now in prison in Turkey for their expression of opinion or for their affiliation with pro-Kurdish or far-left publications.
We respectfully request that you convey to the Turkish government CPJ’s concerns for enhanced protections for Turkish journalists from violent assaults and to take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of journalists from attack. We also ask that the Turkish government ensure that individuals responsible for brutalizing journalists are justly punished.
I thank you for your attention to this important matter and look forward to your comments.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Join CPJ in Protesting Attacks on the Press in Turkey
Send a letter to:
His Excellency Selcuk Oztek
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06659 Ankara, Turkey