Rights activists say Serbia has broken the law by placing Kurdish activist Ecevit Piroglu in a de facto jail while pondering Ankara’s demands for his extradition to Turkey to face terrorism charges.

Serbia Jailing Kurdish Politician ‘Unlawfully’, Rights Groups Say

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) at a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, October 7, 2019. Photo by EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Serbia has delayed until further notice the extradition of Ecevit Piroglu, a Kurdish politician and activist wanted by Turkey for terrorism, but has still kept him locked up after his one-year custody sentence expired on June 24.

“After the custody expired, the Higher Court in Serbia … banned him from leaving his place of residence, after which it put Piroglu in a so-called reception centre for foreigners. But that centre is nothing other than a jail,” Nikola Kovacevic, a rights defender specializing in extradition and Serbia’s prison system, said.

Kovacevic told BIRN that the move was “completely illegal”, since the ruling that he should not leave the place of residence was completely different from putting him behind bars again.

“They took him there illegally. This is serious breach of the law”, he told BIRN, adding that a worryingly similar thing was done to another Turkish dissident, Cevdet Ayaz, who was extradited to Turkey against the advice of the UN Committee against Torture, which said he should not be forcibly removed until his case was fully considered.

The UN Human Rights Committee said on June 3 that Serbia should delay the extradition of Piroglu until it had reviewed his case. Piroglu is former director of the Turkish Human Rights Association’s branch in Izmir and a central committee member of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.

Huseyin Ates, coordinator at the “Freedom for Ecevit Piroglu Initative”, told BIRN that Piroglu, who has been on hunger strike for a month, is deprived of even basic rights in the so-called reception centre in Padinska Skela, near Belgrade.

“He is kept alone in a room. There is a guard watching him constantly. Communication with other people is also cut off in the camp. Everyone else has the right to go to the garden, but they do not let Ecevit out to the garden. They [the authorities] still haven’t given us any documents on how long he will stay there. They only say that he will stay there until the court case on his deportation is announced,” Ates told BIRN.

He added that Piroglu is also not being given the vitamins he needs to stop him from fainting on hunger strike, adding they fear he will be extradited without warning.

“We are afraid that he will suddenly be illegally returned to Turkey. Every day the lawyer goes and checks to see if he is really there,” Ates told BIRN.

Based on documents that the Turkish authorities presented, the Belgrade Higher Court ruled on April 20 that “the circumstances for his extradition have been met”.

But Serbian, Turkish and international rights groups asked Serbia to allow him to seek asylum in Serbia.

Piroglu faces trial for terrorism over his role in the 2013 Gezi Park protests, a nationwide street movement against the authoritarian policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He could face 30 years in prison.

Piroglu is on the Turkish police’s “red list” of people wanted for terrorism.

According to Turkish court documents, which BIRN has seen, the authorities accuse him of being a member of an “armed terrorist organisation”, namely the Revolutionary Communard Party/United Freedom Forces, DKP/BOG.

The same documents also claim that Piroglu joined the Syrian Democratic Forces, PYD and fought alongside Kurdish militants in northern Syria. These claims are based on the testimony of secret witnesses.

Turkey considers the PYD the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, which has been fighting for decades for Kurdish autonomy.

Following a failed coup attempt in 2016, President Erdogan launched a massive crackdown on his opponents.

His government has since pressured Balkan states to extradite wanted Turkish fugitives, including supporters of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt, as well as Kurdish politicians and activists.

In 2018, Serbia extradited Cevdet Ayaz, a Kurdish politician, to Turkey over similar terrorism charges – despite appeals from rights groups and a decision by the UN Committee against Torture, saying he should not be forcibly removed until his case was fully considered.

Several other Turkish citizens have been threatened with extradition from Serbia to Turkey in the last few years.

Source link: balkaninsight.com