Respondent for the Campaign: Bekir Bozdağ , Justice Minister

 Free İLHAN ÇOMAK who is on trial for the last 20 years!

 Media coverage in Turkey has been occupied by the intense discussion over re-trial issues in recent days.

One of the people who have suffered from this is Ilhan Çomak, who has been kept under detention for the last 20 years waiting to hear the verdict in the court case against him.

 He was arrested in 1994 when he was just a student at the geography department of Science and Letters Faculty of Istanbul University. He was kept under police detention for 16 days and tortured severely.

Following the police detention he was taken to the court and sent to Istanbul Bayrampasa prison. His trial took place at State Security Court with an indictment based on statements prepared by the police during the torture.

He was sentenced for life in 2000 based on the fabricated statements prepared by the police and without any concrete evidence for the alleged crime.

He has taken his case to European Court of Human Rights following the Appeal Court’s decision to uphold State Security Court’s decision. In 2007 ECHR delivered its judgment on his application and declared that he did not have a fair trial and therefore he had to be re-trialed. In 2005 his lawyers had applied to the court for him to benefit from the changes made to the Turkish Penal Code.

Although the local court had refused their application, in 2007 the Appeal Court overturned the decision on procedural basis. He started to attend the trials in Istanbul following this decision.

His and his lawyer’s requests for the re-trial, on the basis of the ECHR decision, were continuously denied by the court with the excuse that there is no ground for re-trial under the rules and regulations of that time. In January 2013 the local court delivered its decision and upheld the previous decision for the life in prison. The case file has been referred to the Appeal Court again.

 In April 2013 the goverment passed the 4th Legislative Package which opened the way for the re-trial of 220 case files pending before the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. His lawyers application for re-trial was refused by the local court despite the new law.

However his application was later accepted by the upper courts. His first trial took place on 19th December 2013 and was postponed until 11 March 2014. İlhan Çomak has been in prison for almost 20 years now. He already served 2/3 of his prison sentences.

He has been under trial for the last 20 years. Although his re-trial has started, his request to be released while pending trial has been refused. We expect justice to take place in his next trial on the 11th of March and hear the verdict for his release. İlhan Çomak should be freed! PLEASE SIGN HERE!