File 8 - History of intimidation

14 items

File of documents pertaining to the various statements attributed to Koçeri Kurt by the Turkish Government which purported to show that she refuted her application to the European Commission of Human Rights and accused agents of the PKK of coercing Mrs Kurt into apply for political propaganda purposes.
Koçeri Kurt was interviewed on several occasions by the authorities as from 19 November 1994 subsequent to the communication of her application by the Commission to the Government. On 9 December 1994 following an interview with the Bismil public prosecutor, she addressed statements to the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association and to the Foreign Affairs Ministry repudiating all petitions made in her name. In its judgment, the European Court of Human Rights was ‘not convinced that these two statements, made shortly after the communication of the application to the Government and in the wake of the interview with the public prosecutor, can be said to have been drafted on the initiative of the applicant. Nor is it satisfied that the two visits which the applicant made to the notary in Bismil on 6 January and 10 August 1995 were organised on her own initiative. As the Commission observed, the applicant was brought to the notary’s office by a soldier in uniform and was not required to pay the notary for drawing up the statements in which she purported to withdraw her application to the Commission. It cannot be said that the arguments presented by the Government in this regard establish that there was no official involvement in the organisation of these visits. For the above reasons, the Court finds that the applicant was subjected to indirect and improper pressure to make statements in respect of her application to the Commission which interfered with the free exercise of her right of individual petition guaranteed under Article 25.’
Materials in the file include:
1) Letter/statement from the Essex legal team regarding the 9 December 1994 statement made via the Bismil public prosecutor in which Koçeri Kurt was misled into retracting her application. The letter forwards statements of 7 December 1994 and 6 January 1995 from Mahmut Şakar of the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association regarding Government intimidation of the Kurt family and the forcing of Koçeri Kurt by Government officials to retract her statement, as well as Mrs Kurt’s statement (submitted 23 January 1995)
2) Letters of acknowledgment from the Commission and questions from the Commission to the Government regarding the nature of how the statements attributed to Mrs Kurt were taken (3 March 1995) (CLOSED UNTIL 2073/11/01)
3) Response of the Government to the Essex team’s letter of 23 January 1995 regarding the veracity of Mrs Kurt's statement (16 March 1995) (CLOSED UNTIL 2073/11/01)
4) Letter from the Essex team informing the Commission that they have been unable to contract Mrs Kurt (2 April 1995)
5) Letter from the Government responding to the Commission’s question of 3 March 1995 (2 May 1995) (CLOSED UNTIL 2073/11/01)
6) Documents submitted to the Commission by the Essex team on 5 May 1995, including letters from the Kurdish Human Rights Project, statements of the applicants in the Akkoç and Çağırga cases, and the witness statement of Tim Otty of the KHRP regarding the abuse of the right of individual petition in Turkey.
7) Witness statement of Mark Muller of the KHRP (3 May 1995, submitted 19 May 1995)
8) Response of the Essex team to the Government’s letter of 2 May 1995 (25 May 1995)
9) Further observations of the Government submitted to the Commission (2 October 1995) (CLOSED UNTIL 2073/11/01)
10) Notarised statement of 10 August 1995 attributed to Koçeri Kurt submitted by the Government on 16 November 1995
11) Statement of 2 December 1995 made by Koçeri Kurt via her Turkish lawyers confirming that she wishes to proceed with the application and declaration of means submitted by the Essex team on 4 December 1995
12) Details on intimidation of the applicants in the Koçeri Kurt and Şükran Aydın cases by the Government as submitted by the Essex team (9 December 1995)

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