Conditional Re-trial Leads to Injustice

Turkey has recognized the right to re-trial with the 6th and 7th legal amendments packages adopted in 2003 for the EU accession bid. According to the amendments made, the violations of the Declaration on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its protocols provide the ground for re-trial.

However, the 6th Harmonization Package relieves Turkey of the obligation of re-trying PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. According to this Package, “The provisions concerned will apply to ECHR decisions finalized at the time this Law enters into force and to applications made after that date. For finalized ECHR decisions, applications for retrial have to be made within one year of the date on which this Law enters into force. For the applications made to the ECHR after this Law’s entry into force, the retrial applications have to be made within one year of the finalization of the ECHR decision”.

Marmara University Professor Sibel İnceoğlu and Istanbul University’s Adem Sözüer say that Öcalan’s case before the ECHR does not fit to neither of the conditions. Hence, Turkey does not have to re-try Öcalan.

Sözüer adds that re-trial depends on country’s self-declarations and Turkey decided upon shaping the re-trial clause after the examples of France and Germany.

However, this clause creates injustice due to its conditionality states İnceoğlu. The legal experts say that the clause of conditionality was a product of the conviction to bar Öcalan’s possible re-trial.(TK/EK)