While Turkey Anguishes Over Capital Punishment, 194 Languish on Death Row

Dudu Gul has spent 11 years behind bars, waiting first for the verdict in her prolonged murder trial and now for the hangman.

She has been on Death Row longer than any other inmate here, but in many ways her case is typical of the fate of the 194 people awaiting execution.

Under Turkish law, Parliament must approve all death sentences. But the deputies are hesitant to resume executions after a 4-year halt.

Turkey and Greece are the only countries in Western Europe that retain the death penalty, although there have been no executions in Turkey since 1984 or in Greece since 1972.

Conservative Opinion

Turkish President Kenan Evren and many conservative politicians contend that the Turkish people favor the death sentence.

But editorials in the Turkish press warn that a parliamentary decision to resume hangings would strain relations with other Western nations at a time when the government’s application for full membership in the European Common Market is pending.

“You cannot lift the death sentence in a country where terrorists keep killing innocent people, including women and children,” said Alpaslan Pehlivanli, a deputy from the ruling Motherland Party and the chairman of Parliament’s Justice Committee.

He was referring to the Kurdish guerrilla attacks in southeast Turkey. Of the 194 people on Death Row, 123 are political terrorists convicted of murder.

Long Waits for Condemned

Although he favors the death penalty, Pehlivanli objects to the long waits for the condemned on Death Row and believes that in a country where the courts are independent, Parliament should be left out of the capital punishment process.

Only two executions have been approved and carried out since Turkey returned to civilian rule after its 1983 elections. But the lengthy trials continue for thousands of suspected terrorist arrested by the military after the 1980 coup.

The result is that more death sentences are forwarded to Parliament, and more people wait on Death Row.

“Especially with the conclusion of mass trials lately, hardly a week passes without receiving new death files,” Pehlivanli said. “It is a nightmare.”

1,000 on Trial

The Istanbul daily Cumhuriyet reported that at least another 1,000 suspected terrorists are on trial and face the death penalty. Pehlivanli said there were already more people on Turkey’s Death Row than ever before.

Executions are carried out by hanging in Turkey, but only after a lengthy trial process. Before a death sentence handed down by a lower court can be carried out, it must be reviewed by an appeals court, approved by Parliament and finally by the president.

Mass trials can last for years, and individuals often languish in jail for two or three years awaiting a verdict in their trials. There is no bail for people accused of murder, the only crime in Turkey that can bring the death sentence.

After they are assessed the death sentence, inmates can again wait years for the sentence to be reviewed.

Wait Called Inhuman

M. Ali Birand, a prominent columnist for the Istanbul daily Milliyet, wrote that it was inhuman to make people live for years with the fear of execution.

Birand, who opposes capital punishment, contended that “this appointment with death every day” was worse than death itself.

Dudu Gul, 30, was arrested at age 19 and waited three years for the verdict in her trial. She has spent the last eight years on Death Row.

Under provisions of a bill drafted by Pehlivanli, her sentence would be commuted to life in prison. His bill, if it ever becomes law, would commute most of the death sentences awaiting review by Parliament.