US embassy cable - 03ANKARA3154

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 003154 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2008 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU 
SUBJECT: FORMER MP DISCUSSES ROLE IN MANISA TORTURE 
CONVICTION 
 
 
REF: ANKARA 2246 AND PREVIOUS 
 
 
Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.5 b and d. 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: Sabri Ergul, one of the prosecuting attorneys 
in the high-profile Manisa police torture case, used his 
status as a parliamentarian to maintain pressure on the GOT 
and ensure the 10 defendants were convicted and sentenced. 
Ergul served as a witness in the case, having seen some of 
the teenage victims while they were being tortured in 
detention.  After the conviction, he hung a banner calling on 
PM Erdogan to see that the officers were arrested and jailed. 
 In addition to such efforts, Ergul credits a fact-based 
prosecuting strategy and international pressure for the 
conviction.  End Summary. 
 
 
2. (C) The Manisa trial ended April 4 (reftel) after seven 
and a half years when an appeals court upheld the conviction 
of all 10 police defendants, who were sentenced to prison 
terms ranging from five to 11 years.  After the trial, we 
requested an appointment with Ergul, one of the prosecuting 
attorneys and a former Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) MP. 
Ergul gave us a detailed account of his involvement in the 
case.  His story is consistent with what we know about these 
events, and we consider it highly credible. 
 
 
-------------------------------------- 
By Chance, Ergul Involved From Day One 
-------------------------------------- 
 
 
3. (C) Ergul recalled that in December 1995 a woman who had 
worked on his parliamentary campaign called him, upset that 
her younger brother was among 16 teenagers detained and taken 
to the Manisa police detention center.  At her request he 
went to see the teenagers.  As a lawyer, he said, he had no 
clear right at that time to see the detainees, though the GOT 
had issued a circular recommending lawyers be given access 
(Note: Lawyers have the right to immediate access today under 
recent reforms.  End Note).  But as an MP, he was not going 
to take no for an answer.  He demanded access, and was sent 
back and forth between the prosecutor's and police chief's 
offices.  Eventually, Ergul said, he convinced the prosecutor 
to call the police chief as Ergul stood by.  When he arrived 
at the detention center, the police chief sent him upstairs 
to see the director of the Anti-Terror Department, where the 
teenagers were being held.  But when he got there, the 
director and his assistants had gone, apparently assuming he 
would eventually give up and leave as well.  However, Ergul 
convinced the guard on duty to let him wait in the director's 
office for his return. 
 
 
4. (C) From the office, Ergul could hear screams partly 
muffled by loud music.  He followed the sound to a door, 
which he opened and saw a young girl on the floor, naked 
except for a blanket held against her body.  There was 
another teenager on the floor and two more sitting on chairs. 
 An officer in the cell tried to shove the door closed, and 
Ergul angrily shoved back.  During the confrontation, the 
guard, pointedly referring to Ergul as "Mr. Parliamentarian," 
said the director was available to meet him.  At that point, 
Ergul said, he decided he would use his skills as a lawyer 
and status as an MP to prosecute the case. 
 
 
------------------------------ 
Doctors Confirm Torture Claims 
------------------------------ 
 
 
5. (C) Ergul arranged for a group of doctors expert at 
identifying signs of torture to examine the detainees, most 
of whom were age 14-16.  The doctors found physical evidence 
to support the teenagers' accounts of being beaten, given 
electric shocks, and raped with truncheons.  Interviewed 
separately, the teenagers told similar stories of torture. 
For example, several said police gave them electric shocks 
through a ring on the right toe; doctors said a ring on the 
left toe could damage the heart.  Many recounted that police 
administered shocks to the hairy parts of the body and threw 
water on them during the torture -- techniques the doctors 
said were commonly used to avoid telltale marks. 
 
 
------------------------ 
Maintaining the Pressure 
------------------------ 
6. (C) Ergul said he knew he would have to maintain 
consistent pressure in order to ensure the police were 
convicted and sentenced.  At the start of the trial he sent a 
case file to then PM Ciller, and when he got no response he 
hung a copy on the door of the PM's office.  Inspired by 
traditional signs on businesses with messages like "In This 
Establishment There is Bread," Ergul hung a sign on the 
Manisa detention center declaring, "In This Establishment 
There is Torture."  After the April 4 conviction, Ergul 
continued to follow through to ensure that the GOT fulfilled 
its duty to round up the convicts and incarcerate them.  On 
the morning after the verdict, he hung a banner on his 
balcony with a message for his neighbor, PM Erdogan: "The 
Court Did Its Job, Now It's Your Turn."  Pictures of Ergul 
standing by the banner appeared in newspapers.  When Ergul 
learned that several of the convicted officers were staying 
in a police guest house in Ankara, he threatened to send the 
media over unless they surrendered, which they did.  He also 
contacted the Embassy to make sure none of the convicts could 
be given visas.  To date, nine of the 10 officers have turned 
themselves in; there is an arrest warrant for the tenth, 
Engin Erdogan. 
 
 
------------------------------------- 
Teenagers Acquitted on Terror Charges 
------------------------------------- 
 
 
7. (C) As for the teenagers, they were arrested and charged 
with being members of the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary 
People's Party (DHKP/C), a terrorist organization.  Ergul 
said they were accused of writing pro-DHKP/C graffiti, 
although their graffiti involved nothing more threatening 
than statements like, "Down with University Tuition," a 
protest against a recent decision to begin charging tuition 
at public universities.  Later, he said, prosecutors tried to 
trump up the charges by blaming them for a barbershop fire. 
But that strategy fell through when an investigation revealed 
a faulty stove as the cause of the blaze.  The teenagers were 
all acquitted in court, despite having confessed under 
torture, but remained in detention during their trials for 
periods ranging from seven months to 2.5 years.  Ergul said 
he tried to get the cases against the teenagers dropped in 
light of the evidence of torture, but his efforts were 
rejected. 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Fact Based Prosecution, International Interest 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
 
8. (C) Ergul said he and other prosecuting attorneys were 
careful to avoid politicizing the case.  In public 
statements, and in court, they focused on the evidence at 
hand and did not try to depict the torture suffered by the 
teenagers as part of a broader human rights crisis.  Ergul 
believes that strategy helped maintain public support, and 
pressure, for a conviction.  He also said U.S. and European 
pressure on the GOT helped ensure a conviction. 
 
 
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Comment 
------- 
 
 
9. (C) The Manisa case has been around for so long that 
attention shifted years ago from the suffering of the victims 
to the prosecution of the criminals.  Ergul's account reminds 
us why cases like these are so important, and underscores the 
need for Turks and outside observers to insist that Turkish 
authorities punish torturers. 
PEARSON