Five Transgender Activists To Go On Trial In Turkey
10/18/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
http://lezgetreal.com/2010/10/five-transgender-activists-to-go-on-trial-in-turkey/Five transwomen are on trial as prostitutes in Turkey, and are facing up to three years in prison for resisting police. They go on trial on 21 October, and international rights groups are calling for the Turkish government to drop the criminal charges. The five were arrested in May when they were beaten up and taken into custody, according to the Ankara-based transgender rights group, Pembe Hayat or Pink Life.
New York-based Human Rights Watch was one of five signers in a joint letter to Turkey's Interior and Justice ministers that the police were the ones accountable in this and not the five transwomen. The rights groups also called for an end to violence against ->-bleeped-<-s and transsexuals in the country that spans Europe and the Middle East. They also called on the Ankara government to enact laws protecting lesbians and gays from discrimination.
------------------
Transgender rights defenders look forward to justice in Turkey
Monday, October 18, 2010
ISTANBUL - Daily News with wires
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=transgender-rights-defenders-look-forward-for-justice-2010-10-18Leading human rights organizations urge Turkey to investigate the attack against transgender rights activists by police in Ankara in May. The organizations say the police officers responsible for the attack should be held accountable and called for an end to violence against toward transgender people. 'Police ought to protect transgender people and their advocates, not attack them,' says Hossein Alizadeh, an activist
Five human rights organizations have urged Turkey's interior and justice ministers to investigate the attack against five transgender rights activists by police in Ankara in May.
