Conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan
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).
Dear Mr President Ahmet Nezdet Secer
I am very concerned about the recent sentences against conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, who has been sentenced to a total of 25 months imprisonment by the Sivas Military Court.
The sentences from 10 October 2006 are a violation of international legal standards. In the case of Turkish conscientious objector Osman Murat Ulke the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention decided in 1999 (Opinion 36/1999) that any detention of a conscientious objector after an initial detention following a first act of refusal is "arbitrary, being contrary to article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".
In addition, the sentences defy the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Osman Murat Ulke, and force Mehmet Tarhan into a situation amounting to "civil death", which the ECHR ruled a "degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 3" of the European Convention on Human Rights.
I call on you to stop prosecuting conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, whose sentence is arbitrary and a violation of Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I call on you to respect the right to conscientious objection.
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