Written declaration No. 532 | Doc. 13044 | 07 February 2013
Detained MPs
We, the undersigned, deplore in the strongest terms the continued detention of eight deputies elected to the Turkish Grand National Assembly in the 12 June 2011 elections. We stand in solidarity with them.
The eight deputies coming from three different political parties are all still in custody due to ongoing court cases against them. Several of them have been incarcerated for nearly three years.
We view the situation of our colleagues in Turkey with grave concern. Their treatment is in contradiction with the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding “deprivation of liberty” and with its First Protocol regarding “the right to vote and be elected”.
Furthermore, this state of affairs is also in violation of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), regarding the right to participate in political life.
Their detention constitutes a transgression of “their right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty” as enshrined in the ICCPR and the ECHR.
We urge all those concerned in Turkey to create those conditions that would allow these rightfully elected deputies to perform their parliamentary duties bestowed on them by the will of the people.