Umut Fırat Süvarioğulları has to be free, Statement of VR-DER (Turkish Conscientious Objection Association)

16 October 2018

Umut Fırat Süvarioğulları has to be free! Statement of VR-DER (Turkish Conscientious Objection Association) calling for the release of conscientious objector Umut Firat after 25 years of incarceration.

Story of 25 years Incarceration
"The outside is tangled the inside. We are reading pages filled up with court news everyday. I hesitate to write. It's hard to talk about yourself when you see so many who suffer. But my cause is not just my trial. I believe in this...”
These words are from the end of 10 page letter that incarcerated revolutionary anarchist Umut Fırat Süvarioğulları sent to Meydan newspaper. Summary of his quarter century of incarceration, his judicial process which was planned like fiction, the repression, threats and 25 years long torture...
Umut Fırat Süvarioğulları is incarcerated since September 2, 1994 in relation to actions he never committed. He is deprived of his freedom for a quarter of century because of "crimes" like writing slogans on the walls and handing out declarations...
The testimonies which Umut Fırat Süvarioğulları denies during court, were taken without the presence of a lawyer and with torture. Indeed, some of the officers who signed the records of testimony had later been found guilty of "torture murder". The evidence for his incarceration is only related to testimonies of the suspects and the video allegedly taken during testimonies and diagrams drawn by the police. There was no other evidence; neither a witness nor a testimony taken without torture...
At the end of a judicial process with all these and other lawlessness, according to the decision of Izmir State Security Court dated August 12, 1998, Umut Fırat was found guilty of "realizing actions in order to dividing lands of homeland" and sentenced to life time imprisonment.
When the final verdict was taken to European Court of Human Rights; since the court included a military judge, without further investigation, ECHR convicted the violation of "fair judgement principle".
However, the lawlessness during the custody, arrest and jurisdiction continued after the ECHR ruling and the procedure for new trial was not implemented. The lawyers demanded, the court denied... After many attempts and deadlock, the demand for new trial was accepted and Umut Fırat was in the court the first time on April 7, 2016. Only after 22 years after he was arrested as a result of some fiction...
In every and each trial since the first one, the demand for release was repeated and the court continued to deny the demand. The trial for verdict was postponed until October 19, 2018. The judicial process in all "lawlessness" by the State Security Courts which do not even exist today and its "lawless" verdict is apparent! This detention which is deemed "violating fair judgement" even by ECHR, is a depiction of alleged justice system of state!
This practice has no coherent basis. This practice has to end, Umut Fırat Süvarioğulları has to be free!