October 26, 2009
Press Release from Iranian Refugees' Alliance, Inc.
Turkey releases Iranian refugees in belated compliance with European Court
judgment
Two Iranian refugees held in detention in Turkey in defiance of a European Court of Human Rights ruling were
finally released on Friday. The Court judgment of 22 September 2009 had
condemned the detention of Messrs. Abdolkhani and Karimnia as arbitrary and unlawful. They had been held since
June 2008 for more than sixteen months.
Subsequent to the Court ruling a further seven refugees and asylum-seekers,
including a mother and her three children, held in related circumstances for up
to eighteen months have also been released.
"We are relieved that these men, women and children, detained
unlawfully in very poor conditions for so long, are finally free,” said Iranian
Refugees’ Alliance’s
director, Deljou Abadi, who represented Messrs. Abdolkhani
and Karimnia before the Court. "But dozens of
refugees and asylum seekers are still languishing in detention as a result of
the Turkish authorities’ refusal to apply the principles set out in this
judgment. The European Court’s
22 September judgment clearly established that detentions like this which are
practiced absent clear legal provisions, time-limits or the opportunity for
speedy judicial review are arbitrary and unlawful. We shall pursue the cases of
those still held.”
Since 2007 a string of complaints have been filed against Turkey with the
European Court of Human Rights by refugees and asylum-seekers in connection
with arbitrary and unlawful deportation and detention practices. Ten of
the complainants who have been kept in detention from thirteen to thirty months
are still anxiously awaiting their release.
For
Iranian Refugees' Alliance’s
earlier press release in this regard please see http://www.irainc.org/pub/PR0909.html.
Iranian
Refugees' Alliance, Inc., is a non-profit NGO in the U.S. assisting and advocating on behalf of Iranian asylum
seekers and refugees nationally and internationally.
====================
Iranian Refugees' Alliance, Inc.
Cooper Station
P.O.Box 316
New York, NY 10276-0316 USA
tel: 212-260-7460
fax: 267-295-7391
email: irainc@irainc.org
URL: www.irainc.org