Conscientious Objector Süver to be Hospitalized on Compulsion

The Aegean Army Command Military Court rejected the request to release conscientious objector İnan Süver. Süver has been in detention for three and a half months now. He had stated, "I am a conscientious objector and I do not want to do even one day of military service".

His case was continued on 8 November. The Military Court decided to extend Süver's detention in the Buca Prison (Izmir). The Initiative Against Crimes of Thought announced that the trial was postponed to 6 December. Süver will have been imprisoned for four months by then because of his thoughts on conscientious objection.

Imprisoned since 5 August

The court decreed to transfer Süver to a military hospital in order to have a report issued on him. It had already been decided to hospitalize him in the previous hearing but he was not transferred. Süver protested the court for its decision and said that he did not ask for a report because he was a conscientious objector.

Süver was conscripted in 2001but used his right to conscientious objection. The married father of three children was arrested in 2003 and detained in the Şirinyer Military Prison, nicknamed by conscientious objectors as the "Şirinyer Military Torture House".

Süver is an activist of the Kurdish Conscientious Objection Movement. An arrest warrant was issued in his name in the scope of an investigation into alleged desertion. He was taken into custody from his home in Istanbul on 5 August 2010.

Lawyer Erkan: Application to the ECHR

He was arrested by the military prosecution and taken to the Kasımpaşa (Istanbul) Prison. He started a hunger strike by the time he was transferred to the Izmir Şirinyer Military Prison on 24 August.

Lawyer Davut Erkan told bianet that his client started a hunger strike on 9 August. He gave a break when he was released from hospital and resumed the hunger strike on 31 August.

Erkan said that an investigation was launched about his client under allegations of "absence without permission". "He reacted this way because he considers his arrest and prosecution as contrary to the law, so he started the hunger strike", Erkan explained.

The lawyer announced that he is preparing an application to the European Court of Human Rights together with his colleagues form Izmir in order to end this "injustice that has been going on for ten years". He said to refer to the ECHR decision of the case of Osman Murat Ülke as a precedent.

Süver: I strike for exclaiming my innocense

Süver was born in the south-eastern Kurdish majority province of Van in 1977. Erkan said that members of the Human Rights Association (İHD) and lawyers of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV) are visiting Süver on a daily basis. The lawyer indicated that his client's situation will be clear within one month.

Lawyer Abdullah Öztürk said after his visit to Süver, "During our meeting he told me that he was on strike to exclaim his innocence". (EÖ/VK)