Conscientious objector Halil Savda

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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 sentencing of conscientious objector Halil Savda, sentenced for a second time by the Corlu Military Court on 12 April 2007, this time to six months imprisonment.
Halil Savda had 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.
The new sentence bring the total up to 21 1/2 months.
The new sentence is not only a violation of Article 9 ECHR and Article 18 ICCPR, it also constitutes a violation of Article 14 para 7 of the ICCPR, which states that "no one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country". The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made this clear in its opinion 36/1999, on the very similar case of conscientious objector Osman Murat Ülke: "The Working Group is of the opinion that there is, since, after the initial conviction, the person exhibits, for reasons of conscience, a constant resolve not to obey the subsequent summons, so that there is "one and the same action entailing the same consequences and, therefore, the offence is the same and not a new one" (see Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, 18 September 1999, No. 2, No. 130/95). Systematically to interpret such a refusal as being perhaps provisional (selective) would, in a country where the rule of law prevails, be tantamount to compelling someone to change his mind for fear of being deprived of his liberty if not for life, at least until the date at which citizens cease to be liable to military service."
Halil Savda's sentence and treatment also 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.