Court Watch
ceedings, a ruling that has already come down in favor of President Kenyatta. The ICC denied Ruto’s request to remain in Kenya during his trial. Now, the Prosecutor is likely to appeal the Court’s earlier decision to allow Kenyatta to remain in Kenya dur- ing his trial.
Ruto was given a one-week break from trial in the aftermath of the Somali terrorist attack on the mall in Nairobi that killed over 60 civilians so that he could return to Kenya to fulfill his constitutional duties as deputy president. The Court, after ruling that Ruto could not remain in Kenya during his trial, said that they would consider letting Ruto return to Kenya on a “case by case basis” if his presence in Kenya is necessary.
The trial of President Kenyatta was set to begin November 12, 2013, but was pushed back after a defense request for more time to prepare. Ke- nyatta’s trial will now begin in February of 2014if the Security Council does not delay proceedings. The Security Council has the authority to refer cas- es to the ICC or to defer prosecution. France and the United Kingdom are the only two permanent members of the Security Council who are also State parties to the Rome Statute.
The U.S. has called on Kenya to honor their com- mitment to address post-election violence through cooperation with the ICC.
It seems unlikely that the Security Council will vote to delay the proceedings against Kenyatta. While China and Russia have both expressed sup- port for a one-year postponement of the leaders’ trials, the three western P5 states are unlikely to follow suit.
* Submitted by Blake Evans
ECtHR Rules Turkish Voting Rights Too Restrictive
In the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case of Söyler v. Turkey, the applicant alleged a
violation of his voting rights under Article 3 of Pro- tocol No. 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the “Convention”).
In 2007, Ahmet Atahür Söyler was convicted of drawing checks with insufficient funds and sen- tenced to five years in prison. His sentence was to end April 1, 2012, but he was conditionally released on probation on April 9, 2009. Söyler complains that not only was he disenfranchised in the July 2007 elections while he was in prison, but that he was also not allowed to vote in the June 2011 elec- tions while he was out of prison but on probation. Indeed, after lodging a complaint with the High Council for Elections, Söyler was informed that, as a convicted prisoner, he was not entitled to vote.
Söyler argued that the blanket ban imposed by the Turkish law did not account for his specific offense – Söyler owned a company that was affected by the recession, which ultimately bankrupted it. He argues that the ban was unfair because he was not an untrustworthy citizen, but rather a victim of the global economic crisis.
Turkey argued that the ban on voting was not a blanket ban, but rather a legitimate and proportion- al one because it disenfranchised only those who committed their offenses intentionally.
Section 7 of Turkish Law No. 298 of 1961 bars convicts in penitentiary establishments who com- mitted an intentional crime from voting, and Sec- tion 53 of Law No. 5237 of 2004 states that the imposition of a prison sentence deprives convicts of the right to vote until the completion of their prison sentence. This law is read to imply that the date of completion of the prison sentence is not the date of the release, but rather the last day of the original sentence. In Söyler’s case, this corre- sponds to his original April 1, 2012 release date, instead of his conditional release date. Turkey’s explanation for the continued disenfranchisement after a conditional release is that convicted per- sons have not “once again become a trustworthy
ILSA Quarterly » volume 22 » issue 2 » December 2013
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