ECHR; Ümit Diriöz Turkey (No: 38560/04)

The fact that the prosecutor stood on a raised platform in the courtroom did not infringe the principle of equality of arms.
In today’s Chamber judgment in the case Diriöz v. Turkey (application no. 38560/04), which is not final1, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:
No violation of Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (c) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case concerned the complaint by an accused that there had been an infringement of the principle of equality of arms in so far as the prosecutor stood on a raised platform whereas he and his lawyer had been placed, as was the rule, at a lower level in the courtroom. The Court considered that whilst this conferred a privileged physical position on the prosecutor in the courtroom, it did not place the accused in a disadvantageous position regarding the defence of his interests. The Court also reiterated that neither the letter nor the spirit of Article 6 of the Convention prevented a person from waiving of his or her own free will the right to legal assistance during police custody.

Principal facts
The applicant, Ümit Diriöz, is a Turkish national who was born in 1977 and is currently being held in Bayrampaşa Prison in Istanbul (Turkey). On 9 September 2000, during an altercation between several individuals, he fired a pistol several times. Four people were injured and a fifth, who had had nothing to do with the altercation, was hit by a stray bullet and subsequently died. On 12 October 2000 the public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against Mr Diriöz, who had fled.
On 14 January 2001 Mr Diriöz was arrested while in possession of a forged identity card and placed in police custody. The custody report signed on that day indicated that he had been informed, among other things, of his right to legal assistance. In his statement drawn up on 16 January 2001 Mr Diriöz ticked the box “I do not wish to be assisted by a lawyer”.

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Deficiencies in effective access to justice in Turkey

Broad laws against terrorism and threats to the state, political pressure, and inadequacies in the judicial system limited access to justice, as did lengthy pretrial detention and lack of transparency in the prosecution of cases related to state security.
The time lag between arrests and presentation of indictments; leaks of information, evidence, or statements; restricted defense access to evidence put forward by the prosecution; and the secrecy of the investigation orders also fueled concerns about the effectiveness of judicial protections for suspects.

The close connection between prosecutors and judges gave the appearance of impropriety and unfairness in criminal cases, while the broad authority granted to prosecutors and judges contributed to inconsistent and uncertain application of criminal laws.

During the year the government adopted judicial reforms to speed up and improve judicial processes.

activists , echr , freedom , journalists , Justice , law , national , news , Political , Turkey , writers

C.A.S. and C.S. Romania (26692/05)

The applicants, C.S. and C.A.S., father and son, are Romanian nationals who were born in 1954 and 1990 respectively and currently live in Iasi (Romania).

The case concerns C.A.S.’ complaint that it took the authorities seven years to investigate his repeated raped by a man, eventually acquitted, who forced his way into the family flat when he came home alone from school in a period from January to April 1998. C.A.S., 7-years’ old at the time, alleges in particular that the violent sexual abuse to which he was subjected was of such gravity that it amounted to torture, and that the proceedings were slanted, the domestic courts blaming his parents, and to a certain extent him, for not reacting sooner.

He relies on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life and the home). Both applicants further complain under Article 8 that their family life was destroyed and that they were forced to leave the town in which they lived to rebuild a normal life.

echr , International , law , nationals , news , Romania , Social

Europe May Turn Back 1930

Europe Human Right Court President Jean-Paul Costas incumbency ends at this month. He has been chairing for 13 years. He talked about future of court, Europe, European Union, economic crisis damages to human rights.
According to Kayhan Karaca, reporter of ntvmsnbc.com, Jean Paul Costa is anxious about Europe future.

"We have two possible script view of geopolitical. First script is disaster. Those events at 1930's may repeat today (In Europe). Very serious economic and social crisis, unemployment, authoritarian regimes capture the competence and war. League of Nations demolishes and the passing from the peace to the war and the passing from international organizations to gunfight. This is the script of disaster. We can think these possibilities will repeat. All conditions are available. But although I think international society will resist despite these conditions and the peace will resist to the war. But the fact that we will live hard conditions is real. Climbing over economic crisis which begin 3 years ago will attend during long years. But I don't think script of disaster is inevitable" Costa said.

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Turkey’s Somalian Children

Turkey is carrying out a big aid campaign, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for Somali who are suffering in the grip of drought.

In an effort to position himself as the leader of Muslim countries in the Middle East region, Erdogan is trying to show the slamic World that he is not indifferent to the Muslim Somalis. He stands up to Israel in order to gain sympathy of Muslim countries.

However, he is ignores those of his own citizens who are trying to lead their lives under very difficult conditions in Turkey. Because of the economic crises that have been experienced in Turkey, bankrupt businessmen live under very difficult conditions, and they are sought by the courts and police because of their debts.

When these businessmen are caught by the police, they are put into prison for five years. They do not have a prominent address and they constantly change the place they live in order not to be caught. They are unable to receive treatment when they get ill, because in hospitals, the police check whether the person is sought or not by the courts. And if they have a job, they can in no way benefit from social rights, because they cannot register for social security.

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Google Censorship in Turkey

In October, 2010 Turkey lifted a ban on YouTube that had been in place for two years.

About 600,000 Turkish bloggers are thought to use the Google tool to publish their personal journals. The ban has been imposed because Turkey’s copyright protection laws allow for entire services to be shut down.

Google confirmed the Blogger ban in a statement and said those with worries about piracy should turn to its easy-to-use takedown systems rather than seek a wholesale shutdown. "The process for making a copyright claim for content uploaded to Blogger is straightforward and efficient, and we encourage all content owners to use it rather than seek a broad ban on access to the service," said a spokesperson. "that way, people in Turkey can continue to enjoy Blogger whilst we respond to the specific complaint."

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Human rights violations in Turkey

In an annual report released on Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the top judicial body to rule on human rights violations in Europe, found that Turkey is by far the worst violator of human rights among the 47 signatory states of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In statistical data on violation judgments by country for the period between 1959 and 2009, Turkey topped the chart with 18.81 percent of all violation judgments, followed by Italy with 16.57 percent and Russia 6.34 percent. Within this timeframe, 2,295 judgments were entered for Turkey and only in 46 cases did the court find no violations. The most common human rights violation committed by Turkey was the denial of the right to a fair trial. Italy scored second with 2,021 judgments against it.

In 2009 alone, Turkey again topped the list in terms of violations of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. In a tally of the number of judgments entered for Turkey, 356 cases out of a total of 1,625 put the country in the worst violator class. In only nine cases out of the 356 did the court find there was no violation, while stating that at least one violation occurred in the rest of the cases. Russia followed Turkey in 2009 with 210 judgments against it.

ankara , Case-Law , echr , European , law , Political , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , Turkey

Human Rights Defenders "Where are"

Within the frame of the liberal economy. Trade and commercial relations between merchants are carried out by means of post dated checks in Turkey.

The banks give out blank checks to their customers and the merchants use these checks in trading of goods and services by filling them out by giving 6 months, 1 year or longer periods of maturity to them.
The financial crisis in the world has affected profoundly our country; as a result, the merchants were unable to pay their post-dated checks on their due dates.

According to Article 38/8 of the Turkish Constitution, as amended in 2001 taking into regard the European Convention on Human Rights, "no one can be detained from his/her freedom due to only his/her failure to fulfill a contractual liability”. As such, prohibition of detainment of freedom due to only failure to fulfill a contractual liability (i.e., provision for “no imprisonment for debt”) has been added to our constitution. This provision, taken from the Article 1 of the Protocol constituting the 4th Annex to European Human Rights Convention, underlines that imprisonment due to failure to perform a contractual relation will be contrary to the human freedom and honor.

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