Turkie promised to speed up its judicial system on Wednesday after a new EU-inspired law forced the government to free alleged Islamic militants accused of torturing and killing dozens, as well as suspected rapists, murderers and mobsters whose trials have lasted for years.
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin defended the release and promised to shorten trials, responding to public outrage over the law that says people may not be held in custody for longer than 10 years while they await verdicts.
The son of a teacher who was executed by an alleged militant in 1994 said he was furious at this week´s release of 18 members of a Kurdish Islamic group, whose supporters danced in the streets of the southeastern city of Diyarbakır on Monday to celebrate the freedom of a senior member, Edip Gümüş, while he awaits an appeal.
"It is like winning the lottery on New Year´s Eve for Hezbollah leaders," Ahmet Arif Oyur told NTV television. "I am shocked, I am so angry that I can´t sleep since their release. The murderers are among us."
The law was passed to try to conform with regulations of the European Union, which has criticized lengthy jail terms in Turkie, where it is not uncommon for suspects to spend more than a decade in jail until a final verdict. The EU, which Turkie aspires to join, has urged the country to speed up the judicial system.
The militants were jailed in 2000 after police unearthed at least 70 bodies in dungeons in a crackdown on the Hezbollah group, which takes its name from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, but shares no formal links.
Most of the militants were sentenced to life in prison in December 2009 on charges of killing 188 people and attempting to set up an Islamic state in the country´s Kurdish-dominated southeast. But an appeals court failed to decide whether to uphold their convictions, forcing their release when the law went into effect Jan. 1.
"Of course, some releases might have caused outrage in the public and irritated all of us," said Ergin. "But the judges must deliver rulings based on the law, rather than their conscience."
Authorities have ordered released prisoners to report weekly to police and banned them from traveling abroad. They could go back to prison if the appeals court upholds their convictions.
But, Turkie has long, porous borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq, and many fear that suspects could easily escape.
Legal experts say the law hardly improves the justice system because suspects can still be kept in jail without a verdict in their trials for up to a decade. Hundreds of military officers and others currently face charges of attempting to topple the Islamic-rooted government, and some suspects in that case have been in jail for about two years.
Ergin said about 14 percent of the cases against Turkie at the European Court of Human Rights were related to complaints about lengthy jail terms. He said the new law was part of a reform process, but acknowledged the 10-year limit was long. He said about 1,000 suspects are expected to be released under the law.
"In the past, there was no limit and people could stay in jail without a final verdict for 20 years," he said. "We are working to shorten the trial process."
He said the country´s appeals courts are buried under more than 1.5 million cases waiting to be addressed.
Turkie seeks to join the European Union. The European Commission´s 2010 progress report said the overall number of vacancies for judges and prosecutors in Turkie remained high at more than 3,000. It noted that regional courts of appeals were not operational yet — a measure expected to speed up the appeals process once in place.
It was not clear if the new law will satisfy the EU. Riza Turmen, a former member of the European Court of Human Rights, told NTV television Tuesday that the maximum limit suspects can spend in jail should have been three years.
"The law might have been passed in line with EU regulations in order not to further restrict the suspects´ freedoms," said Oyur. "But it has aggravated our grief."
Associated Press
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