Cablegate: Tip in Turkey: Parliament Passes Key Amendments

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RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAK #6672/01 3491525
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 151525Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0315
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006672

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP JENNIFER DONNELLY, EUR/SE ELISE
MELLINGER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM KCRM KWMN PGOV SMIG TU
SUBJECT: TIP IN TURKEY: PARLIAMENT PASSES KEY AMENDMENTS

1. (SBU) Summary: The Turkish parliament passed amendments
to two key articles in the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) December
5 that will improve anti-trafficking efforts in Turkey once
implemented. Lawmakers added forced prostitution to Article
80, the primary anti-trafficking article, and removed forced
prostitution from Article 227, the prostitution and pimping
article. Up to now, prosecutors had tended to use the less
stringent Article 227 to try cases against traffickers as a
majority of trafficking crimes in Turkey involve forced
prostitution. With the amendments, lawmakers have ensured
that traffickers will be tried under the appropriate, tougher
provision, Article 80. Now, victims will be assured of
automatic protection, legal counseling and health care.
Traffickers will be subject to stricter sentencing
requirements of eight to twelve years. Statistics on
prosecution of TIP-related crimes will be more reflective of
the real story as most TIP crimes are tracked under Article
80 prosecutions. End Summary

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Article 227 vs. Article 80
--------------------------

2. (SBU) In October 2004, the Turkish parliament passed
Article 80, a new article in the TPC, to consolidate prior
anti-trafficking in persons (TIP) provisions and to provide
for increased penalties for traffickers. In June 2005, the
parliament completed its revision to the TPC, when Article 80
replaced old trafficking-related articles such as Article
201. Article 80, however, did not at the time contain a
specific reference to forced prostitution, which was
specifically addressed in Article 227 on prostitution and
pimping. Because Article 80 lacked that specific reference,
prosecutors tended to use the less-stringent Article 227 to
prosecute traffickers of women for prostitution, in order to
ensure a solid case.

3. (U) In an effort to eliminate the confusion, the
parliament in December amended Article 227 to remove any
reference to forced prostitution and amended Article 80 to
add the new phrase "made them be involved in prostitution"
into the following paragraph (informal Embassy translation):

A person who procures or kidnaps persons or who takes or
transports persons from one place to another or who harbors
persons with a view to force them to work or to provide a
service, made them be involved in prostitution or to subject
them to slavery or similar practices or donate their organs
by exerting threats, pressure, force or violence, by abusing
his authority, by deceit or by obtaining their consent
through taking advantage of the opportunities they have to
control them or of their helplessness shall be sentenced to
imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years and to an
judicial fine of up to ten thousand days. (Note: Days refers
to per day minimum wage equivalent. End note)

--------------------------------------
Trabzon Prosecutor Provides
Illustrative Example of the Problem
--------------------------------------

4. (SBU) When we met with him in September, Trabzon Chief
Public Prosecutor Riza Can explained the need to eliminate
the confusion but doubted that parliament would make this a
priority. He told us then that all of the cases his office
brought under Article 80 have been rejected by the high
crimes court in Trabzon and returned to the prosecutor. Can
said the approximately 10 open cases were related to sex
trafficking and the higher court rejected them because
prostitution was not explicitly mentioned in Article 80,
while forced prostitution was outlined in Article 227. Can
said he would still follow the evidence and bring cases under
Article 80 as warranted. If prosecutors are forced to use
Article 227, he noted, prosecutors can and do combine several
other TPC articles with Article 227 to subject traffickers to
increased punishment. For example, Can said, forced
prostitution with an organized crime element can bring double
the punishment under Article 227; a separate Article 250 can
be used as well. His point was that. while the evidence
warrants prosecuting under Article 80, cases brought under
Article 227 and others could and did still subject
traffickers to a similarly high level of potential penalty
and sentencing.

5. (SBU) Can said he was concerned about how Article 80 was
being applied. He was skeptical (in September) that the
parliament would consider amending the law and expected the
issue would be resolved instead through case law. At the
time, many other prosecutors, Ministry of Justice and police

ANKARA 00006672 002 OF 002

officials and political party and NGO contacts echoed Can's
opinion.

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Change Will Improve Anti-trafficking Efforts
--------------------------------------------

6. (SBU) The anti-trafficking National Task Force,
particularly the MFA, Turkish National Police and Jandarma,
led efforts to lobby parliament to pass the amendments. The
International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the
Embassy also encouraged the changes. President Sezer must
still sign the bill, which also includes several provisions
on EU-related reform. MFA contacts tell us that even though
some reform elements of the bill may be vetoed by the
President, they do not expect he will veto the amendments
made to TPC Articles 80 and 227.

7. (SBU) The amendments advance anti-trafficking efforts in
the following areas:

-- Under Article 80, victims have increased protection rights
under the Supplementary Protocol and domestic law. These
rights include automatic protection and access to legal
counseling and health care. While victims were often
provided such rights before using other law provisions, this
change will make it automatic and help ensure uniform
application of these rights country-wide.

-- Traffickers will be subject to sentences of eight to
twelve years. Article 227 contained lower sentencing
provisions. Even though prosecutors often used several
different articles to prosecute traffickers in addition to
Article 227 that increased the possible sentence, prosecutors
told us proving all elements was more difficult than if they
were able to prosecute under a single, comprehensive article.

-- The GOT will be able to gain a more accurate picture of
investigations, prosecutions and sentencing against
traffickers because most TIP crimes are tracked under Article
80 and not Article 227.

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Comment
-------

8. (SBU) Although anti-trafficking advocates recognized the
Article 227 versus 80 problem immediately after the TPC was
finalized in June 2005, Embassy contacts were skeptical that
parliament would pass the needed amendments so soon after the
TPC was completely overhauled. Most expected that
jurisprudence via High Court of Appeal (Yargitay) case laws
would have to solve the problem, which would have taken
years. The success of the National Task Force's lobbying
effort, therefore, came as a welcome surprise. While the
effort demonstrates the GOT's seriousness in combating
trafficking, implementation will be the barometer by which to
measure real progress.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON

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