ZAGREB, July 18, 2018 – The Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) non-governmental organisation warned on Wednesday that a Kurdish refugee, Nurettin Oral, was still detained in an Osijek prison even though he was arrested more than a year ago based on a warrant issued by Turkey and even though the Constitutional Court ruled on a temporary ban on his extradition six months ago.
CMS said in a press release that Interpol has confirmed that the arrest warrant for Oral’s arrest is invalid. “Not only should Oral not be returned to Turkey but he should be immediately released and allowed to return to Switzerland, where he and his family were granted asylum 13 years ago,” CMS said, asking the authorities why Oral was still in jail.
CMS underscored that many international institutions and organisations had assessed that the human rights situation in Turkey had been deteriorating for the third consecutive year and that it was obvious that people like Oral were exposed to political persecution.
CMS further said that Interpol had established a mechanism to revoke arrest warrants, aware of the misuse of the arrest warrant mechanism by countries that politically persecute their political opponents, adding that Interpol had informed it that the warrant against Oral no longer existed. CMS concluded that this was yet another case where Turkey had called for extradition and which had turned out to constitute abuse of the system and violation of refugees’ rights.
Croatian courts have so far managed to establish fair treatment of victims of political persecution in cases where attempts are made to manipulate arrest warrants, the NGO said. It is high time that the relevant authorities acted in accordance with the practice so far, as well as with international and domestic documents and principles, and not allow this man’s life to be further jeopardised, CMS said.
