There is growing concern that Serbia is keeping Kurdish activist Ecevit Piroglu behind bars long after his custody sentence expired in order to extradite him to Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) at a press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) in Belgrade, Serbia, 7 October 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Kurdish politician and activist Ecevit Piroglu, wanted by Turkey on terrorism charges, remains in a detention centre near Belgrade and in critical health after nearly two months on hunger strike, despite rights groups calling for his immediate release. They accuse Serbian authorities of putting him in a detention centre in violation of Serbian law.
“Despite … the United Nations Committee Against Torture, Serbian laws and court rulings on Piroglu in Serbia, he is illegally held hostage by the Serbian police so that he can be extradited to Turkey,” Huseyin Ates, coordinator at the “Freedom for Ecevit Piroglu Initative”, told BIRN.
The UN Torture Committee on June 3 urged Serbia to delay the extradition of Piroglu until it had reviewed his case. Piroglu is a former director of the Turkish Human Rights Association’s branch in Izmir and a central committee member of the Socialist Democracy Party, SDP.
“The Serbian authorities’ decision is a crime against all universal judicial rules and procedures,” Ates added.
Piroglu has been on an indefinite hunger strike since June 2, and his strike, “now on the 59th day, has passed into a critical stage that will cause permanent damage to his health,” Ates said. Piroglu already has a chronic lung disease, he noted.
Serbian courts have delayed a final verdict of Piroglu’s ongoing extradition to Turkey but still keep him locked up, long after his one-year custody sentence expired on June 24.
Based on documents that the Turkish authorities have 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 have urged 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.
He 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 he 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.
Ates said that they cannot communicate with Piroglu and the Serbian authorities do not answer any of their inquiries.
Rights activists fear Piroglu will be sent to Turkey secretly, as has happened previously.
“Dirty plans such as keeping a person at this stage of a hunger strike in captivity in solitary confinement, and handing him over to the Turkish State under the disguise of ‘deportation’ in a pirate-like manner in order to avoid responsibility, will make the Serbian government guilty as well,” Ates told BIRN.
Following a failed coup attempt in 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a massive crackdown on his opponents.
His government has since pressured Balkan states to extradite wanted 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.
Serbian Police and the Justice Ministry did not answer BIRN’s questions by the time of the publication.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
