KCK lawyers trial: Report by Melanie Gingell

12 November 2012

Dear friends

Please find below and attached the latest in a series of personal reports written by members of a recent UK delegation to Istanbul. The delegation observed the continuation of the lawyers KCK trial, and included solicitor Ali Has, human rights lawyer Margaret Owen OBE, the Law Society's Tony Fisher, and Bronwen Jones and Melanie Gingell, of Tooks Chambers, London. Here, Melanie Gingell gives her impressions of the trial and her concerns about how the trial is proceeding.

Tony Fisher, member of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society, also participated in the delegation and wrote this report last week: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/kck-lawyers-trial-report-by-tony-fisher/

We will bring you further reports in the coming weeks.

Kind regards,
Melanie Sirinathsingh
Estella Schmid

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Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk <mailto:estella24@tiscali.co.uk>
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh - Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596

Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas


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KCK TRIALS ISTANBUL 6TH NOVEMBER 2012

In response to an invitation from a Kurdish solidarity campaign PIK, I attended the trial of 47 lawyers in Istanbul on 6th Nov 2012.

I was part of a 5 person delegation comprising 3 barristers and 2 solicitors from the UK. Legal delegations from France, Switzerland, Germany, Canada also attended the trial.


BACKGROUND

On the 5th November 2012 we attended a briefing meeting conducted by Istanbul Lawyers. They provided the following background to the case.

In November 2011, 47 Turkish and Kurdish lawyers were arrested and charged under anti-terrorist legislation with membership of a proscribed organization and of other related charges involving the communication of orders from jailed leaders. Thirty- eight of them have been held in custody awaiting trial. Nine have been granted bail with strict reporting conditions. They all deny the charges.

The common factor linking these lawyers is that each of them had at some time had dealings with cases involving Kurdish issues. Some of them had represented Ocalan the jailed leader of the PKK. Some of them had conducted cases before the ECHR. Others had been involved in asylum-based cases. There was a coordinated wave of arrests of these lawyers.

The prosecution evidence consists of the covert recordings of conferences between the lawyers and their clients. The lawyers’ houses and offices were subsequently searched and computers confiscated.

The prosecution of lawyers in Turkey requires the permission of the Ministry of Justice, which has not been obtained in this case.

**The full report is attached, or you can read the rest of the report online here: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/kck-lawyers-trial-report-by-melanie-gingell/