A Life Stolen Away in Prison
Authorities accused Güllüzar Erman of robbing a bank based on a stranger's testimony provided under torture and despite the account of events offered by eyewitnesses. Erman has remained under arrest for nine years and received a sentence of life-time imprisonment.
Referring to her situation as a "legal murder," Erman then penned a letter to Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin to request his aid.
Law enforcement officials first detained Erman on April 9, 2003 and arrested her four days later. She had to wait until Jan. 19, 2004 to attend the first hearing of her trial.
The Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court later sentenced her to life time imprisonment on May 4 on the charge of "attempting to overturn all or part of the constitution by force," as stipulated in article 309 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK.)
The Prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Appeals demanded that her sentence be ratified, and her file is still pending at the Ninth Criminal Chamber of the appeals court.
Erman, 39, stands accused of robbing a back and stealing a weapon, while she continues serving time at the Gebze Women's Prison in Istanbul. The "evidence" offered by the prosecution against her is a testimony offered by Aligül Alkaya, although Alkaya has already said in court that he had testified under torture, but to no avail.
"They beat me up when I refused to sign the testimony"
"I was born in [the southeastern province of] Bingöl. I was around the age of seven or eight when we emigrated off to Istanbul's Tuzla district with my family. I could barely finish primary school due to financial reasons. I began working while I was still a child. I worked in boarding house services at the age of 13 and daytime house cleaning at the age of 17. By the time I was 19, I became a worker at a leather factory in the Tuzla Industrial Park," she wrote to Minister Ergin.
"The police raided our home when I was just back from work on April 9, 2003. They asked if I knew A.R.K., who had begun to work as a technician at the leather factory where I was employed for some time. When I told them I knew him, they said they were going to take my testimony and took me to the Anti-Terror Department," she said in her letter.
The officers, however, did not ask her about A.R.K.
"They asked me questions about people I never knew. They demanded that I sign the testimony they themselves had written, and they beat me up when I refused. I was arrested four days later, and I only saw what I was charged with months later when the indictment was prepared," she said.
"They stole my life away"
The police showed Alkaya Erman's identity card, and he consequently recognized her and admitted that Erman was also involved in two incidents in which Alkaya had also partaken in, according to the testimony presented to court.
Alkaya, however, rejected this account of events at the prosecutor's office and said they had taken his testimony under torture. "I acted in this way to save myself from torture," he said.
People who witnessed the bank robbery also confirmed they did not recognize Erman.
The defendant party also presented documents to the court indicating that Erman was at work at the factory where she was employed at the time and date the crime had taken place, but the court sentenced her to life-imprisonment nonetheless.
"It constitutes a grave injustice for me to have gone through all this, despite the fact that I do not remotely have any connection [to the robbery.] They want to steal away the rest of my life, too, as if it were not enough that they have already stolen my years away," she said. (AS)