CO Alerts letter form

Use this form to send the letter below to the relevant authority (President Ahmet Nezdet Secer). You can add your own notes in a separate box after the standard text, if you wish.
You must include a name, address, and email address; a copy will be sent to you with a cc to the WRI office (so we have a record of how many email letters have been sent out for this particular case).

Standard text for letter of appeal:

I am very concerned about the sentencing of conscientious objector Halil Savda, who has been arrested on 7 December while attending his trial at Corlu Military Court, and has been sentenced to 15 1/2 months of imprisonment on charges of "desertion" on "continued disobedience" on 15 March 2007. He is still on trial on a second charge of disobedience.
Halil Savda has a complex story. He spent several years in prison, sentenced on charges of "supporting an illegal organisation". After serving his sentence, he was released from prison on 18 November 2004, and was sent handcuffed from prison to Antep Gendarmerie Station because of his desertion from military service. On 25 November 2004, he was transferred to "his" military unit in Corlu-Tekirdag. There he declared that because of the torture he had to endure in 1993, he cannot serve as a soldier. In a letter to the Commander he declared himself a conscientious objector, and demanded that Turkey finally recognises the right to conscientious objection. He had been released on 28 December 2004, with the trial still pending. He was given an order to report to his military unit, but went home instead.
However, on 7 December 2006 he appeared in court to defend himself, and to demand his human right to conscientious objection, as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. It is absurd that the Corlu Military Court justifies his custody with the explanation that Halil Savda might abscond - why would he have presentend himself in court then?
Halil Savda was then "released" on 25 January 2007, and sent to his military unit, where he was re-arrested on 26 January. During his time there, he also suffered abuse by military officers. As a consequence of this renewed arrest, he faces a second charge of "disobedience to orders" - in violation of the legal principle of double jeopardy, as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention pointed out in its opinion 36/1999 on the case of Osman Murat Ulke.
Halil Savda's sentence and treatment defy the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Osman Murat Ulke, and the demand of the European Parliament for Turkey to recognise the right to conscientious objection.
I call on you to respect the right to conscientious objection, and to immediately release Halil Savda.

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