US Congress members seek release of political prisoners
Several members of the US Congress have sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the Turkish government to release political prisoners.
In the letter, the members of Congress, including Ilhan Omar, also requested that Washington put conditions on US financial and material assistance to Turkey to ensure that the release of prisoners was carried out fairly.
“We urge you to engage directly with the Turkish government on its COVID-19 prison policy to insist that release policies are offered equitably and consistently, and that certain groups in detention — particularly journalists, activists and other political prisoners — are not excluded for political purposes,” the Congress members said.
The letter referred to Turkey’s recently passed amnesty law that released tens of thousands of prisoners as a measure against overcrowding in jails. However, the law was criticized for excluding those jailed on broadly applied terror charges that criminalized all dissidents, including journalists, politicians and right activists.
“As we know from news media reports and human rights groups, many of those arrested on such charges include journalists, students, civil society leaders,
“The US has currently has little sway over Turkey’s policies toward political prisoners, and has no appetite for taking up the matter unless they are US nationals.”
human rights advocates and political opposition leaders who do not appear to either have demonstrable links to acts of terror or treason, or close and continuing associations with those engaged in such acts,” the Congress members said.
The latest 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices from the US State Department has criticized broad anti-terror legislation for restricting fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in Turkey, and documented several arbitrary arrest and detentions. However, Simon Waldman, an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a visiting research fellow at King’s College London, thinks that the letter to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is unlikely to have any tangible effect.
“It is late. Ankara’s decision to exclude political prisoners was already made one month ago and the members of Congress who signed the letter have little chance of influencing Mike Pompeo let alone the Oval Office,” he told Arab News.
According to Waldman, Washington currently has little sway over Turkey’s policies toward political prisoners, and has no appetite for taking up the matter unless they are US nationals. Andrew Brunson, a 50-year-old US pastor who was detained in Turkey for almost two years on terrorism charges and released in 2018, strained ties with the two NATO allies and drew the anger of US President Donald Trump who turned the case into a foreign policy priority of Washington toward Ankara.
The release of Brunson was considered to be linked to pressure from Trump as well as members of Congress, and their behind-door deals with Turkish officials to lift the crippling US sanctions that pushed the Turkish lira into free fall against the dollar.