Tahar Djaout, Metin Goktepe, Anatoly Levin-Utkin: still waiting for justice

(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 15 April 1999 WiPC press release: ** For background to Levin-Utkin case, see IFEX alerts of 7 September and 26 August 1998; for Goktepe case, see alerts of 20 March, 13 March, 9 January 1998 and others; for Djaout case, see alert of 30 June 1997** WiPC is joining […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 15 April 1999 WiPC press release:

** For background to Levin-Utkin case, see IFEX alerts of 7 September and 26
August 1998; for Goktepe case, see alerts of 20 March, 13 March, 9 January
1998 and others; for Djaout case, see alert of 30 June 1997**

WiPC is joining UNESCO and many press freedom groups around the world in
marking the twentieth century’s last World Press Freedom Day on 3 May this
year. The international focus this year is to be on unpunished crimes
against journalists. WiPC is therefore highlighting three cases of
assassinated journalists whose cases PEN was intimately concerned with but
whose murders have never been resolved.

As the UNESCO press release for the day notes: “murder, violence, and
intimidation are used as means to silence journalists and most of these
crimes are not investigated and punished. The record for 1998 is dismal,
with at least 20 journalists killed in the course of duty. In total, more
than 500 journalists have been assassinated over the past ten years.” In
1997, UNESCO’s Member States adopted a resolution calling for those
responsible for crimes against journalists to be brought to justice.

You are invited to mark this day in their own country by:
– writing appeals on behalf of the three journalists who cases are outlined
below
– writing articles about World Press Freedom day for local newspapers
– broadcasting stories about World Press Freedom day on your local radio
stations
– disseminating this action, or the UNESCO information packet, to other
organisations, journalists, or officials in your own government with
requests that they too take action.

Tahar Djaout, Metin Goktepe, Anatoly Levin-Utkin: Still Waiting for Justice

Djaout, Goktepe and Levin-Utkin worked in different places – Algeria, Turkey
and Russia respectively – but shared a similar mission to protect the
ever-shrinking space in their various countries for freedom of expression.
They also shared similar fates. Each was brutally killed as a result of
carrying out their journalistic duties.

Tahar Djaout was shot in the head three times at close range on the morning
on 26 May 1993. He died eight days later. It was assumed that Islamic forces
were responsible. Aged 39, he had already established himself as a respected
writer of novels and journalism, and was the author of the now celebrated
verse:

Silence is death
And you, if you speak, you die
If you are silent you die
So, speak and die.

Djaout had worked as a journalist on the El-Moudjahid newspaper, then with
Algérie Actualité. With two colleagues from the latter, he founded the
journal Ruptures. After his death his friends did their utmost to campaign
for those responsible to be brought to justice. A trial was held of one
suspected accomplice, who was found not guilty; two other suspects were
themselves shot extrajudicially – apparently by the security services.
However, the identity of the perpetrators of the crime remains essentially
unestablished. Djaout’s death heralded a horrific explosion of such crimes
against the media – between 1993 and 1996, 53 journalists were reported
killed in the line of duty.

Metin Goktepe worked in Turkey for the left-wing newspaper Evrensel. On 8
January 1996 he was detained by police in the town of Eyup, while covering
the funeral of two prisoners killed by their guards during a prison revolt.
Sometime later that day, he was beaten to death. He was 27 years of age.

Subsequently eleven police officers were charged with the murder. An initial
trial began in October 1996 and concluded in 1998. Five of the eleven were
convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment; this
judgement was overturned on a technicality and a re-trial ordered. Those who
were convicted were released and are back on active duty. Meanwhile, one of
the witnesses against the police was himself detained, beaten and threatened
during the course of these proceedings. There is now grave international
concern that three years after Goktepe’s brutal murder, with strong evidence
identifying those who killed him, his killers remain at large and in a
position to continue their abuse of the positions they hold.

Anatoly Levin-Utkin was deputy-editor of the new St. Petersburg weekly
Yuridichesky Petersburg Segodnya (Juridical Petersburg Today) and one of its
most determined and fearless reporters. He was beaten up on 21 August 1998
outside his apartment; his briefcase, which contained material for the
papers’ next issue, was stolen and his pockets rifled. He was taken to
hospital and operated on for serious brain traumas, but he died on August
24.

The Glasnost Defence Foundation was among those calling on the general
public prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, to lead an investigation into the murder.
However, to date his killing remains unsolved and the local police
department are apparently unwilling to concede the possibility that his
death was directly related to his journalism. His colleagues on the paper,
however, are in little doubt of his killer’s motives. Levin-Utkin had been
working on sensitive investigative stories on such subjects as the bank
markets and the Federal Security Services. Days before the attack, he had
been contacted by various officials in the customs and security services,
pressing him to reveal the sources of his stories.

Recommended Action

For Tahar Djaout:

His Excellency Liamine Zéroual

Président de la République algérienne démocratique et populaire

Alger, Algeria

Fax: +213 26 9618

For Metin Goktepe:

His Excellency Cahit Bayar

Minister of the Interior

Ankara, Turkey

Fax: +90 312 417 39 54
For Anatoly Levin-Utkin:

His Excellency Boris Yeltsin

President of the Russian Federation

Moscow, Russia

Fax: +7095 206 3961