The International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) has written to Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, to express concern about the prosecution in Turkey of attorneys "in apparent retaliation for their human rights work". Specifically the ISLP wrote to Muiznieks to "draw attention to the case of Muharrem Erbey, an attorney and human rights defender who has been detained for more than three years during a trial by the Turkish government that does not appear to meet basic fair trial standards".
ISLP asked the Commissioner to "examine this case and, if appropriate, work to ensure the immediate release of Mr Erbey and the dismissal of all of the charges against him".

BACKGROUND
Mr. Muharrem Erbey, Vice President of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD), is a prominent Kurdish human rights attorney. He was arrested on December 24, 2009 and charged with membership in the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), which is alleged to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish liberation group that has taken responsibility for terrorist attacks in Turkey. Turkish law criminalizes membership in either the KCK or the PKK.
Mr. Erbey’s arrest and criminal trial has taken place in the context of widespread prosecutions of persons active on Kurdish nationalist issues.

Mr. Erbey was formally indicted on June 18, 2010 and charged with violating Articles 314 (“being a member of an illegal organization”) and 220 (“committing an offense on behalf of an illegal organization”) of the Turkish Penal Code.
The charging document against Mr. Erbey and his co-defendants is over 2,000 pages in length. The section on Mr. Erbey is over 150 pages in length and purports to include documentary evidence proving his membership in the KCK. In particular, the charging document alleges that Erbey’s efforts to document and publicize alleged human rights violations by the government against Kurds in Turkey are characterized as illegal attempts to humiliate the State, which Turkey alleges is consistent with the objectives of the KCK and PKK. Finally, the charging document references a secret witness (“X”) who stated that Mr. Erbey provided legal services to Kurdish persons allegedly sympathetic to the KCK.

In August of 2011, Erbey wrote a letter from prison where he admitted to the majority of the factual assertions against him, with the exception of being a KCK member. He acknowledged engaging in the following activities: delivering speeches on human rights and the Kurdish issue in meetings at the United Nations and to the English, Belgian, and Swedish parliaments; advising victims in their applications to the European Court of Human Rights; preparing projects on women’s and children rights, participating in efforts to prepare a “civilian, pluralist” constitution; and writing to public prosecutors and to the Turkish Human Rights Commission on behalf of victims. The Turkish government has characterized each of these acts as furthering the goals of the KCK.
The charging documents against Mr. Erbey appear to be inconsistent with basic principles of international law, including international standards governing fair trials, freedom of expression and association, and the role of lawyers in preserving and vindicating human rights.

The charges against Mr. Erbey for his alleged criminal membership in the KCK and for committing offenses on behalf of the KCK are not supported by the charging document and appear to be aimed at preventing him from engaging in human rights advocacy on behalf of the Kurdish community. In particular, the reliance upon a secret witness to substantiate the charges against Mr. Erbey likely violates international law.