Malaysia also to blame for Turk’s torture, say rights groups


Date posted: April 5, 2018

Sheith Khidhir Bin Abu Bakar

PETALING JAYA: Human rights NGOs have called on Malaysian authorities to accept responsibility for the alleged torture of a Turkish teacher in his native country after he was deported from Malaysia.

Speaking to FMT, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) said the authorities had violated international customary law when they deported Alettin Duman and two other Turkish citizens back to Turkey at the request of Ankara.

They said this was done despite pleas from family members who feared for their safety in the wake of President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan’s clampdown on domestic dissent after an abortive coup.

Lawyers for Liberty and Suaram say authorities violated international law by deporting the Turkish teacher back to his homeland despite fears for his safety. 

The two NGOs were responding to a report by Swedish human rights group Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) which quoted a former detainee as claiming that Duman was being tortured in a Turkish jail.

Duman, a private school teacher who was extradited to Turkey in 2016 on charges that he was involved in the failed coup that year, was allegedly beaten, tortured and threatened with staged executions.

The detainee, known only as S T, had shared a cell with Duman in Ankara’s Sincan Prison.

LFL executive director Eric Paulsen and Suaram project coordinator Dobby Chew said it was unlikely there would be any consequences although Malaysian authorities may have violated international customary law which prohibits the deportation of a person to a place where that person will face further prosecution.

“There’s no international mechanism (to censure such violations). That’s one of the biggest weaknesses in international law and that’s why Malaysia still violates it,” Paulsen said.

Chew agreed, saying there was no avenue for anyone to challenge or file a complaint after the deportation.

“Meanwhile, Malaysia will most likely say it didn’t know and it only complied with requests,” he said.

Paulsen also questioned the different treatment apparently given to different individuals, citing controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik as an example.

“Just like Naik – India wants him, but does Malaysia just hand him over to India? Surely Malaysia must examine his reasons for not returning to India to face charges.

“When it is convenient, Malaysia will just hand them over. We have seen how genuine claims of asylum were circumvented by the authorities just bundling them away – people accused of being pro (Erdogan opponent) Fethullah Gulen to Turkey, Uighurs to China and even a poet to Saudi Arabia.”

The poet Paulsen spoke of was Hamza Kashgari whom the authorities arrested in 2012 for alleged blasphemy.

Authorities claimed the arrest was made at the request of Interpol, which denied it.

Hamza was then deported back to Saudi Arabia.

Source: Free Malaysia Today , April 4, 2018

Tags: | | | | | | |


Related News

Liberal Turkish Journalists Champion Freedom of Expression, to a Degree

It’s precisely opposition journalists who have been criticized by colleagues who until recently worked for the newspapers of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen. These colleagues accuse the opposition journalists of betraying freedom of expression. One of them is Sevgi Akarcesme who was editor-in-chief of the Turkish English-language daily Today’s Zaman. There is a great deal of truth in Akarcesme’s claims. But who today would dare defend journalists identified with Gulen?

Unexpected consequences [of prep schools in Turkey]

The hottest debate in Turkey today is about the abolishment or, officially, the “transformation” of the private university prep schools. These are private enterprises. They are not schools but provide additional education to high school students to increase their ability to succeed in the nationwide university exams held every year.

Conference declares gov’t needs to be more active in preventing domestic violence

İPEK ÜZÜM, İSTANBUL The government should take a more active role in preventing domestic violence — which is on the rise across Turkey and the world — stated the final declaration of the conference on violence and society organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation‘s (GYV) Women’s Platform between Nov. 24 and 26 in İstanbul. […]

Turkey seizes another baklava maker over coup charges, appoints deputy governor as caretaker

An Istanbul court ruled that the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) takes over the administration of Hasan Gultekin Gaziantep Baklavacisi, an 8-store baklava chain. The decision was made as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement. Turkish government has already taken over more than 800 companies either by confiscating or seizing them.

Erdoğan using hate speech against Gülen movement, says MEP

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s accusations against a faith-based movement led by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen amidst a corruption scandal are both uncalled for and amount to “a kind of hate speech” that has the risk of sparking violence against the group, a senior member of the European Parliament has said.

A dirty war in the run-up to the elections

With the Gülen movement officially marked in police reports as being a “terrorist organization,” we can say that the ruling party’s war against the civilian populace has truly reached its dirtiest stage. A brief summary: The Gülen movement is undoubtedly one of the Muslim world’s most peaceful and tolerant civil movements ever.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

GYV contributes to correct perception of Islam

One of his sons is with the PKK, the other is with the Gulen movement

Turkish Schools Discussed at Johns Hopkins University

Powerful but reclusive Turkish cleric – BBC’s interview with Fethullah Gulen

Turkish PM admits did not know identity of putschists when he blamed Gülen movement

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is about to make himself a virtual dictator in Turkey

Taliban Shuts Down Turkish Schools in Afghanistan

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News