(WiPC/IFEX) – On 8 March 2000, poet Yilmaz Odabasi entered Saray Prison to serve a seven-month sentence for “insulting the court”. International PEN considers him to be detained in direct denial of his right to freedom of expression and is calling for his release. Background Information On 8 March 1997, Odabasi, age 39, was sentenced […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – On 8 March 2000, poet Yilmaz Odabasi entered Saray Prison to serve a seven-month sentence for “insulting the court”. International PEN considers him to be detained in direct denial of his right to freedom of expression and is calling for his release.
Background Information
On 8 March 1997, Odabasi, age 39, was sentenced to eighteen months in prison by the Ankara State Security Court. His crime was to have “insult[ed] Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic” under Law 5818 of the Turkish penal code, in his collection of poetry entitled “Dream and Life”. After a series of appeal hearings during which time he remained free, his sentence was upheld and he entered prison two years later, on 12 March 1999. He served only six months of his sentence and was amnestied on 8 September 1999, under the Law on Postponement of the Crimes Committed Through Press (see IFEX alerts of 24 September and 11 June 1999).
However, during his imprisonment, a second charge was making its way through the legal system. On 8 March 1997, upon hearing of the sentence against him, Odabasi protested to the court saying “I am ashamed of living in the same age and the same country as you.” For this he was additionally charged with “insulting the court” and judicial proceedings were set in motion. These concluded in early 2000 with his conviction, and he was required to present himself at Saray Prison on 8 March to begin his seven-month sentence.
Odabasi is a Kurdish writer originally from Diyabakir. He was first imprisoned in 1980 during which time he was allegedly tortured. He appeared in court in 1987 to appeal against a seven-year sentence for his alleged involvement in the Socialist Party, a conviction that was eventually overturned. After his imprisonment in Bursa and Saray prisons in 1999 he wrote a public protest of prison conditions. He referred to Bursa as a “castle of oppression” and told of the deaths of two fellow inmates, one of ill treatment and another from poor living conditions.
Odabasi started writing in the late 1970s and has since written a number of collections of short stories and poems, a number of which have led to literary awards. In the mid-1980s he ran a bookshop in Diyabakir, and has also worked as a journalist, including at the Diyabakir office of the “Turkish Daily News”. He moved to Ankara in the early 1990s.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the prime minister:
– protesting Odabasi’s detention and calling for his immediate release
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey
Fax: + 90 312 417 0476Copies of your appeals should also be sent to the Turkish representative in your country. In Canada, appeals can be sent to:
His Excellency Erhan Oyut, Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
197 Wurtemburg Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 8L9
Tel: +613 789 4044
Fax: +613 789 3442Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
