Human Rights Leaders Urge Turkish Government to Drop Charges against Transgender Activists
Wed, 11/02/2011 - 11:37 — Richard
http://www.tgeu.org/Human_Rights_Leaders_Urge_Turkish_Government_to_Drop_Charges_against_Transgender_Activists (New York, Nov 2, 2011) - In a joint letter sent to the Turkish Ministry of Justice today, seven human rights organizations called for an end to the continuous harassment of transgender individuals and human rights defenders and expressed alarm at the conviction and potential imprisonment of leaders from the organization Pembe Hayat.
On October 26, 2011, Ankara's 15th Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced three transgender human rights defenders, Naz Güdümen , Buse Kılıçkaya , and Selay Tunç, to jail terms ranging from five to eighteen months. They were convicted of offenses such as "resisting the police" and "insulting the police." While the jail sentences for Ms. Tunc and Ms. Güdümenwere suspended, the court's ruling in the case of Ms. Kılıçkaya is to be enforced if it is upheld by the Court of Appeals.
