The assets of Göç İzleme Derneği and four of its members are frozen by Ministerial decision
Front Line Defenders expresses its concern over the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Türkiye’s decision to freeze the assets of the human rights organisation Göç İzleme Derneği (GÖÇİZDER), a migration monitoring association, as well as of its former chair Songül Köse and staff members İlyas Erdem, Mehmet Zana Kibar and Halit Karahan. According to the decision, published in the Official Gazette on 31 August 2024, it was based on the claim that the organisation and the human rights defenders were "affiliated with the PKK/KCK terrorist organisation". On 30 September 2024, Front Line Defenders sent a letter to Mr. Mehmet Şimşek, the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Türkiye, expressing this concern. The organisation urged the Minister to make the reasoning behind this decision public but has received no response to date.
Front Line Defenders has been following two separate cases regarding Göç İzleme Derneği: the criminal case heard by the Istanbul 26th Heavy Criminal Court, during which the former and current executives and staff, along with others affiliated with the human rights organisation, were on trial on charges of “membership to a terrorist organisation”; and the dissolution case filed at Bakırköy 15th Civil Court of First Instance, concerning the dissolution of the organisation based on the claim that "the association operates in line with the aims and goals of the PKK/KCK terrorist organisation".
The criminal case file in the case heard by the Istanbul 26th Heavy Criminal Court included a comprehensive report by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), under the Ministry of Treasury and Finance which contains detailed financial transactions of all defendants. The Court acquitted all defendants of the charges in the criminal case, and with the prosecutor’s decision not to appeal, the decision is rendered as final. The latter case concerning the dissolution of Göç İzleme Derneği is ongoing, with the next hearing scheduled for 25 December 2024.
This is to say, the four human rights defenders whose assets have been frozen by the Ministry on grounds of prevention of financing of terrorism, were acquitted as recently as February of terrorism-related charges, while the case concerning the dissolution of Göç İzleme Derneği is still ongoing. Therefore, Front Line Defenders is concerned that the decision to freeze the assets of the four human rights defenders lacks sufficient grounds and ignores the February 2024 ruling by the Istanbul 26th Heavy Criminal Court. The decision to freeze the assets of Göç İzleme Derneği would seem premature, as the case against the organization is yet to be finalised.
Following the Minister’s decision, approved by the Ankara 4th Heavy Criminal Court, the assets of the four human rights defenders were frozen, their bank accounts and pensions were blocked, their credit cards, and even public transport passes were cancelled, forcing them almost to a civic death. Their appeal to the the Ankara 4th Heavy Criminal Court is still pending a decision.
Front Line Defenders reiterates it’s call to Türkiye’s Minister of Finance and Treasury and the Ankara 4th Heavy Criminal Court to make the reasoned judgement public. Unless substantiated, the decision to freeze the assets of the human rights defenders and of Göç İzleme Derneği would seem arbitrary and in contravention of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular Articles 2 on fair trials; 5(b) on freedom of association, and 17 on access to resources.
