SECOND SECTION
Application no. 64375/12
Hüsniye DÜZEL against Turkey
lodged on 10 August 2012
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Ms Hüsniye Düzel, is a Turkish national, who was born in 1960 and lives in Diyarbakır. She is the deputy mayor of the Kayapınar Municipality in Diyarbakır. The applicant is represented before the Court by Mr M. Beştaş, lawyer practising in Diyarbakır.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
On 30 September 2007 the DTP (Party for a Democratic Society) organised a press statement in Diyarbakır in order to protest about the conditions of detention in prisons and in particular those of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), an illegal organisation. The applicant participated in this demonstration and carried a banner which read “The humanity is being poisoned”.
On 9 October 2007 the applicant was taken into police custody on suspicion of disseminating propaganda in favour of the PKK. The applicant made statements to the police and declared that she had participated in the demonstration and carried a banner that had been given to her by a young man.
On the same day she made statements before the Diyarbakır public prosecutor and a judge at the Diyarbakır Assize Court. She repeated that she had participated in the demonstration and had carried the banner in question. She contended that she had used her legal right to demonstrate. The judge ordered the applicant’s detention on remand taking into account the nature of the offence, the state of evidence and the strong suspicion of guilt.
On 17 October 2007 the Diyarbakır public prosecutor filed a bill of indictment with the Diyarbakır Assize Court charging the applicant and five other persons with disseminating propaganda in favour of a terrorist organisation under section 7(2) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Law no. 3713). According to the bill of indictment by holding the banner in question, the applicant implied that Abdullah Öcalan had been poisoned by the state authorities and therefore committed the offence proscribed in section 7(2) of Law no. 3713.
On 4 December 2007 the applicant was released pending trial.
On 18 March 2008 the Diyarbakır Assize Court convicted the applicant of disseminating propaganda in favour of the PKK. The court found it established that the applicant had held the aforementioned banner and had chanted the slogan “There is no life without the leader”. The Assize Court sentenced the applicant to ten months’ imprisonment.
On an unspecified date the applicant appealed.
On 9 January 2012 the Court of Cassation upheld the judgment of 18 March 2008.
On 15 March 2012 the decision of the Court of Cassation was sent to the registry of the first-instance court.
On 16 March 2012 the applicant applied to the Diyarbakır public prosecutor’s office and requested that the execution of the prison sentence be suspended.
On 22 May 2012 the Diyarbakır public prosecutor rejected the applicant’s request.
COMPLAINTS
The applicant complains under Article 6 and 13 of the Convention that the Assize Court did not obtain her submissions in reply to the Diyarbakır public prosecutor’s bill of indictment before opening the trial.
The applicant further complains under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention that her conviction was in violation of her rights to freedom of thought and to freedom of expression.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Has there been a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression, contrary to Article 10 of the Convention, on account of her conviction under section 7(2) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Law no. 3713)?
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy