TURK’S GENOCIDE DENIAL APPEAL REJECTED
Gulf Times, Qatar
e.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=190960&version=1& ;template_id=39&parent_id=21
Dec 20 2007
GENEVA: Switzerland’s Federal Tribunal yesterday rejected a Turkish
activist’s appeal over his conviction for having denied that mass
killings of Armenians during World War One constituted genocide.
The tribunal, which is the country’s supreme court, confirmed in
every respect an earlier ruling against Dogu Perincek, leader of a
small left-wing group, the Turkish Workers’ Party.
On March 7 this year, a court in Lausanne fined Perincek 3,000 Swiss
francs ($2,500) and handed down a suspended sentence for having
"denied the Armenian genocide three times during meetings held in
Switzerland in 2005, motivated by racist motives".
Pierre-Henri Winzap, the judge who heard the Lausanne case, ruled
that Perincek’s comments had not been motivated by a wish to start
a historical debate.
He had described the defendant as an "arrogant provocateur" with
"racist and nationalist motives".
The ruling made Perincek the first person to be convicted in
Switzerland for denying the Armenian genocide, following his claim
the killings were an "international lie".
Yesterday’s Federal Tribunal ruling is unlikely to please the Turkish
government.
A Turkish foreign ministry statement issued shortly after the original
March judgment described it as unacceptable and criticised Swiss
media coverage of the case as biased.
It added: "We hope this injustice will be corrected in the future
stages of the legal process by the impartial and independent judges
we believe exist in Switzerland."
Having exhausted all legal avenues in the Swiss courts, Perincek
could now appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
According to the Armenians, 1.5mn of their kinsmen were killed from
1915 to 1917 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and
murder.-AFP